Lily and the Stone of the Philosopher
by LadyMurphyy
Summary: Lily went to Hogwarts, along with her best friend Hector, in the same year as Harry Potter. Follow them in this sidestory to the original books as they learn about the multiple meanings of friendship, family and loyalty. WARNING: This fanfiction has been posted before, but I lost the account password. I am trying to recover it to delete it. I apologize for any inconvenience.
1. Chapter 1

**Fugitive**

Mr. and Mrs. Boyd were a very nice couple living in Edinburgh, and no one could deny it. Other than their niceness, there was not much to talk about them, except for Mrs. Boyd's obvious melancholy.

Mr. Boyd was the Arts teacher in the neighbourhood school. He was a thin, dark blond, tall man, who loved flowers and painting above all things, including his wife. Mrs. Boyd was a short, thin redhead whose deep green eyes seemed to be always looking for something, and she barely ever smiled. Mrs. Boyd worked in the same school as her husband, but as an Food and Health Technology teacher.

The only thing they had in common was friendship, because in spite of being married, they didn't share any other sort of love. They were simply loyal to each other, and to their daughter, Lily.

Violet had been married to Roger for only six months when the child was born. A beautiful ginger, who already had her face full of freckles, and bright gray eyes that made people feel like she could see inside them. Of course she couldn't, really, for Lily was just a baby.

Because of Lily, Violet had become best friends with her neighbour Rachel Allen, who had a boy called Hector, only one day older than little Lily. No one ever knew Hector' father, but Rachel described him as a very odd man, in every possible aspect, who wouldn't contact her back, no matter how hard she tried.

The Boyds did not have what we can call a perfect life. They lived downtown in a really nice apartment, barely ever fought, and spent their evenings having pleasant chats with Rachel during dinner, as they watched the children play on the floor, but truth was, Violet was a very sad person to live with. She was a quiet woman, who barely ever smiled, even when she was happy. She was always looking at the sky, as if she expected it to fall over her head, and looked very melancholic at all times. Her students found her classes boring, and she found them equally uninteresting, even those who cooked well. Violet acted the same with animals, and dogs seemed to drive her especially unhappy. Truth be told, Violet seemed to be constantly fighting back tears and no one, absolutely no one, could tell why.

The only thing that seemed to make Violet happy was Lily. Watching that little girl, and know they were a part of each other, was the only insurance she had that her true life was real, and not a distant dream.

It was Halloween on that cloudy monday, and the two women were together in the kitchen cooking and baking sweets for children who would later knock on the door saying "trick or treats?". Violet felt an odd chill go up her spine when she saw the clouds outside. They were so thick and dark the light could barely get through them.

"Oh, Violet, isn't it perfect for Halloween? Funny, isn't it?" Said Rachel. Rachel tended to be a bit over optimistic, which compensated Violet's constant misery. "I love Halloween, you know? Feels so magical! It's perfect! So dark and mysterious, and all those children dressed like witches and vampires and ghosts!"

Violet was busy looking outside. Those clouds were definitely abnormal. Something was wrong.

"I can barely wait for the day when our babies will first go out to ask for sweets. Can't you picture them doing that?" Rachel wasn't really paying attention when Violet half nodded in response. "It's gonna be really fun, isn't it?"

Violet pretended to laugh and excused herself for a moment and went to her bedroom. She needed to think.

The sky was unnaturally dark, the air was freezing cold, and there was only one explanation for that. Violet couldn't really tell if it was just an especially bad day, or if the feeling that she would never be cheerful again came from non-beings, but she decided not to wait and see.

She groped under the bed until her hands found the loose board on the floor, and under it, her fingers felt their way to the thin, long wood stick. That's where she kept her wand, where no one could ever find it. Her trembling fingers held the object for a moment when she brought it closer to her eyes_._

It had been years since she had last held it.

Violet had hidden in the muggle world, waiting for signs that she could go back. After seeing some great friends being tortured, she decided to leave everything behind, to protect her loved ones. The Death Eaters would never leave her family and friends alone, and she knew it. And nothing could make her more miserable than have to leave them all, and don't even be sure they were alive. Yet, Violet hid, and lived her life with a muggle.

The only thing she couldn't hide was her daughter. Young Lily was most certainly a witch, and had already performed her first shows of accidental magic. And Violet was certain that, on that very evening, she had been found. The Dementors would come for her and there was nothing she could do about it, except for hiding her wand in her sleeve and waiting for those foul hooded things to come.

There was a strong smell of cake in the kitchen when she went back, and she had to cut two slices of it and pour some tea for Rachel and herself.

In the living room, Lily and Hector were crawling, chasing each other in a baby's way to play tag.

There was thunder outside, but no rain. Violet took a sip of her tea, staring at the dark sky, waiting to see a slimy hand on the glass at any moment.

Downstairs, the door opened and then closed, and Violet nearly jumped out of her skin before she heard the steps of her husband downstairs, and then his cheerful voice, claiming that he would be cooking dinner tonight.

Roger always made food look like pieces of art on the flowery plates, even though it was almost always tasteless, despite of Violet's constant advice when he was in the kitchen.

There was a long conversation about the weather: it seemed that a storm would be coming, but there was no wind, just dark clouds. Violet just sat quietly in an unusual way, even for her. Muggles couldn't see Dementors, if they were in danger, she would be the only one there to protect them.

Occasionally, a knock on the door would make them get up to go give children some sweets, and both Roger and Rachel were surprised to see how Violet was the one to go downstairs every time. The cake had long been finished at half past eleven, when Rachel got up from her seat on the sofa and got Hector from where he was asleep on the floor, holding hands with Lily.

When Violet and Roger went to bed, she hid the wand in the nightstand drawer, before her husband came to join her.

"Is everything alright?" It was the first thing he asked.

"Yes." She lied, staring at the mirror that covered the wardrobe door, and looked at the wary face in his reflection.

"Look, I know when something is wrong with you. I know there are things you never told me. You can tell me, I won't blame you. There are things I never told you either." Violet smiled faintly. She loved how his Scottish accent seemed to grow when he spoke softly. "I can tell, if you want to listen." Violet nodded, and finally turned to face him. His brown eyes were distant.

"Alright then," he cleaned his throat "There was a woman once, Elizabeth. I was madly in love with her, could paint her all day long. She was obsessed with flowers, especially lilies."

"Was that why you wanted to call our daughter Lily?"

"Yes. And perhaps that was why I asked you to marry me only three months after we first met." He answered before going on with the story. "Elizabeth was everything to me. We grew up together, she taught me about art. We promised we would get married when we were seventeen, but then… we found out she was ill." Roger had continuously decreased his tone of voice to a whimpering whisper. Violet felt the need to hold his hand, but she didn't. Finally, the man looked up at her again. "Now, your turn. Was there someone else?"

"Well, there was. I loved someone. Still do. But this is not what I'm keeping from you. Just look at Lily, and you will know. When you know, you can ask." She saw his confused face, but couldn't keep answering. It was already too much.

It took a long time until she could finally fall asleep and, when she did, she dreamt of a green flash of light on the windows of an unknown house. She woke up in the morning, and swallowed back the scream in her throat when she realized she was home.

On the grey, dull Tuesday morning that followed Halloween, Violet saw something she had never expected. Sitting on the fence outside the apartment's glass back door, there was an owl. An owl she had already seen… a severe looking screech owl. She didn't have much time to look at it, because Lily woke up crying.

As Roger walked into the living room and sat at the table near the sofa with the newspaper in his hands, Violet tried her best to look calm.

"That's odd" He said after turning a page. "A house exploded in a wee town called Godric's Hollow, in England. I never heard of such place." Violet grabbed the newspaper out of her husband's hands, ignoring his complaints. Godric's Hollow. It wasn't supposed to be mentioned in muggle newspapers… Could it be only on hers?

"That's odd, indeed." She said, more to herself than to Roger. Then she looked at the clock on the wall. It was half past Seven. "Oh, deary me. We are going to be late!"

In the blink of an eye, both of them had at their eggs and swallowed the coffee and got dressed for work.

There was a knock on the glass door, and Violet turned to see Rachel smiling widely with Hector in her arms. Rachel was a University professor, and spent most of her time working at home rather than at the University - except when she had classes to teach - so she looked after Lily in the morning, while Roger and Violet were at the school, and then spent the rest of the day with Violet, since Roger came home two hours after his wife.

Lily, who had been on her high chair, was put in the ground and crawled to the boy. They immediately started playing in their mysterious way. Lily tried to stand, using the coffee table for support. She had been trying to take her first steps for the last week, while Hector experimented with his first nearly understandable sounds. He was watching her as she moved her baby legs.

For the first time in her life as a Muggle, Violet did the unthinkable: she took her wand outside the house. The day wasn't as dark as the previous evening, and there was nothing like the horrible chill Dementors brought, but that owl and the explosion in Godric's Hollow had not happened out of coincidence. Someone important had died last night, the only remaining information there was to get was if it had been someone from the Order or a Death Eater. Her heart sank in her chest. Could… could _he_ have died in Godric's Hollow last night?

Teaching is not something to be done by a teacher whose head is up on the clouds, and much less by a teacher whose heart feels like it is missing. Therefore, Violet's classes on that morning were terribly boring and dull.

Other than that, it was a normal day. She managed to make two of her students understand the true importance of timing between serving the courses and had lunch with Roger and heard him tell her all about all his student's researches on artists around the world. Violet stopped a boy from bullying a girl, and three of her students called sick on that day. As for her own feelings, the woman was proud of being able to stand.

At Three in the Afternoon, Violet left to go home and spend some time with Rachel before Roger came. Perhaps they could take the children to the park and let them play around for a little bit, she thought while crossing the Meadows to go home.

However, her ideas disappeared when she looked up at the trees. There were over a hundred owls sitting on them and, to Violet's horror, all of them seemed to be staring at her. She ran towards her house and locked herself in.

Violet didn't get any sleep on that night. Finally, she gave up on rolling on the bed and headed to Lily's room. She got the baby, carefully not to wake her up, and went to sit by the window, watching the street. It was silent. Completely silent. But there was an uneasiness in the air, it was heavy inside her lungs.

Then a figure appeared. Someone wearing a dark cloak walked to the door and knocked. They tried the door knob. To Violet's horror, one hand slowly raised a wand. Violet needed to see no more. She ran to her bedroom, woke Roger up and handed him Lily, along with the car keys and some money.

"Go. Get into Rachel's apartment, take her and Hector. Get in the car and go. Go to Glasgow, I will meet you there." Roger didn't know anything, but the terrorized gaze in his wife's eyes told him to ask no questions. She watched as he left through the common area to meet Rachel.

The footsteps came up the stairs two seconds after that. Mentally, Violet recited all the spells she could use in a duel, as her heart pounded into her head. She held tight to her wand and pictured Lily's face in her mind as her eyes became filled with tears. Her daughter. That would be her last thought.

The hooded figure finally made it to her field of vision, one hand holding a wand, the other hand raised to his hood. Violet didn't give him time, she didn't want to see what face lied beneath that dark fabric.

"_Stupefy!"_

The figure was thrown against the wall, and it seemed to shake. A painting fell over the person's head, who spat some curse words.

His voice felt like a gulp of hot chocolate in a cold day. Her heart was still pounding, but now she couldn't hold back a smile, and couldn't stop herself from rushing to the man on the floor and aiding him to get up.

The man was Sirius Black.

"Merlin's beard, Freckles," he said, grabbing her hand to help himself up "You could have killed me."

"I'm sorry, Padfoot." Violet made sure to call him what his friends called him, so there was no doubt about his identity, just as he had just done to her.

Sirius immediately wrapped his arms around Violet as if his life depended on it. A warmness spread all over Violet's body. She honestly didn't expect to feel that ever again.

"How did you find me?" She finally managed to ask, as she didn't want to let go of him.

"I had heard rumours that you could be in Edinburgh. I didn't want to come at first because of the letter you left me, but after last night, I had no choice. I had to see you. It was easier than I expected."

"What about last night?" She cut him. Her letter and the need to meet again were subjects she would rather forget about, or at least buy herself some time to think of what to say.

"Oh, Violet..." His voice was a mix of pity and pain. "Lily and James are dead."

If Sirius' appearing felt like hot chocolate, learning about Lily and James felt like going out of a warm shower and into a blizzard. Violet had to hold onto Sirius' shoulders for support, for she could barely keep standing.

"Wha-what happened?" She could barely ask, her stomach was revolving inside her.

"You-Know-Who found them. Wormtail gave them away." Violet felt as if the ground was gone. Out of all people, why them? Poor Lily. Poor James.

Poor Sirius.

She could see the sorrow in his eyes. The man was about to lose his mind, so Violet had to pull herself together and guide him by the hand to sit with her on the sofa, even though she had to use the walls to support her own weight.

"Merlin's beard, Violet, everyone thought I was the one who knew! They are going to think I betrayed them!" He grabbed her shoulders, shaking her. He had the eyes of a mad man.

"Sirius, calm down! Come, sit down, I will make you a cup of tea!" She said.

"No. I have to go soon. They will look for me."

"I can't let you go like this. I already left you alone once, it won't happen again."

"I Have to go. I will only put you and your beautiful family in danger." His voice was cold, painful.

"Then at least stay until you calm down." Violet made him sit. Then she followed Sirius' eyes, which were glaring at one of the many pictures of young Lily.

"How old is she?"

"One year old. Her name is Lily." Now that name had gained a whole different meaning.

"She looks like you." He said, his voice dry and distant, as if he wasn't actually in the room.

"She does. She is showing magic already."

Sirius was suddenly unable to listen to that woman talk about another man's baby. He would rather talk about yet another baby.

"Anyway, there's some good news at last. The boy lived. And the Dark Lord is gone."

"Gone?" She whispered in shock. Gone. After all those dark years, he was gone. "Wait, did Lily and James have a baby boy?"

"Harry. My godson!" He shouted. "Oh, Violet, how can you not know? Haven't you even taken a look outside? What have you been doing meanwhile hiding like a coward? You left _me_, Violet! ME! A witch like you. You… you were valuable to us! You were one of our best duelists, you held _Him_ on your own for nearly two hours! Maybe the Potters would still be alive if…" He didn't seem himself. Violet cried uncontrollably, unsure if the cause was the loss of her friends or Sirius' words, or even his bare presence. Still, she got a grip of herself and shouted back.

"I couldn't have done anything! I knew too much! Too many names! I couldn't risk giving it to him, no matter how long I could hold him." Sirius was shaking.

"You wouldn't be alone."

"I know…" Violet cupped his face with her hands. "That's why I had to leave." She said gently.

He fell to his knees in front of her, taking in what she had said. "I'm sorry I said all of that. It's just that… James and Lily…" She hugged him, stroking his hair as both cried.

"You have to believe me, Violet. I didn't do it. I didn't tell him." He cried. She cupped his face between her hands.

"I believe you." She whispered.

Then he kissed her. Both could feel how each other longed for that moment for the past years. She could feel it. She belonged with him. With her world. She should go back with him. She didn't even love Roger. She liked him a lot of course, he was an amazing husband, but her heart belonged to Sirius and there was nothing she could possibly do about that. But then there was Lily. Her little baby.

She couldn't go.

Violet broke the kiss.

"I am so sorry…" She said.

"Come with me, Violet. Let's go somewhere else. Let's hide somewhere… We can go to… We can go to Brazil, or Australia… you always said you wanted to go somewhere warmer, didn't you?"

"I can't… I can't leave Lily here."

"Then bring her along! We can be a family, like we always wanted!"

"How can I go back, Sirius? After leaving like that… After so many have died, how can I go back and face everyone?"

"Who gives a damn about everyone? You don't have to look at them, we can go somewhere where there's just the two of us!"

"Hiding? Running away from Aurors? How can I put Lily through that? Sirius… If it were just me, I would follow you without blinking. But it's not. I can't do this to her." There were tears in her eyes again.

"I… I understand." He said, with what seemed to be a knot in his throat. "I… I must leave, then."

"No. Please, stay some more!" Even after refusing his offer, Violet was still desperate to spend some time with him. "How could the boy survive? There's no way to survive a killing curse!"

"I know." Answered Sirius. "It's a mystery. He is the boy who lived. The one who defeated You-Know-Who."

"After all of that… A little boy…"

"He has a mark. A scar on his forehead, where the curse hit him, I saw it when Hagrid came to take him. Said the boy is going to live with his uncles - despising people, James told me - He… He looks so much like James."

Sirius touched her cheek with one finger while his voice wandered through his memories.

"I missed you so much…" He whispered. Violet held his hand and kissed it's palm.

"So did I. And I will still miss you, every single day.

"I love you, Violet." He said.

"I love you." She answered.

Then, with another deep kiss, he said goodbye and walked to the middle of the living room.

"One more thing. If I don't come back, watch over Harry for me, will you?" Violet opened her mouth to reply, but was caught by surprise with Sirius' final phrase. "He has Lily's eyes."

Sirius Black disapparated.


	2. Chapter 2

**Owls**

Ten years had passed ever since that night, and Violet had remained hidden in the Muggle world, preparing herself for what would come when she had to go back. Her husband had died on a tragic accident involving a bus, leaving her to raise Lily alone.

Lily and Hector had grown up to become the best friends each other could wish for, and still they couldn't be more different.

Hector was a tall, thin, dark skinned eleven year old boy who looked somewhat older than he actually was, probably due to his taste for science and to his speech skills. Despite his ability to talk he was shy and would rarely ever be seen without a book under his arm. Just like when he was a baby, Hector could easily spend half an hour staring at something with his sparkly brown eyes.

Lily, on the other hand was a ginger with huge bright gray eyes, freckles all over her face and a petite physique that made her look younger than eleven years old. She loved arts and languages, sports and, especially, birds. She was very social and liked to be around friends, especially Hector.

They had learned to crawl together and, within all their differences, they still had found a friend in each other. More than friends, they were family. Lily watched Hector read and Hector watched Lily play football for the school team. Hector had been bullied for a while. His mother found out about this when Lily came home full of dirt and bruises, swearing she had done more damage to the boy who was calling Hector names. Of course nobody messed with them after that.

When Lily had bad marks, Hector intervened and helped her with homework and studying.

Although Lily was only one day younger, Hector seemed much older than her. She was born on February 19, under the sign of Pisces, while Hector answered to the Aquarius sign on the previous day. But since it was just a few hours difference, it was considered that they shared birthdays.

They had fought only once, and both got so depressed and isolated that their parents talked and agreed to force both of them to apologise at the same time.

"Lily, do you think magic exists?" Asked Hector on the first night of summer break. They were laying down on an old blanket they had placed on the floor of the common patio area of the building they lived.

Lily lived on 7 Valleyfield street, while Hector lived on the first floor of the building right next to hers, 9 Valleyfield street. Technically it was the same building, but there were two different entrances and her flat had no other connections to the main building except for the common patio area.

"Like fairies?"

"No… more like mermaids and dragons and witches… hidden somewhere around the world…"

"I don't know… maybe. I mean… people have believed in magic for a really long time, right?"

Lily wasn't actually thinking of history, but about all the odd things that seemed to happen around her. Whenever something bad was about to happen, she was somehow saved, like the time when she was defending Hector from that bully and she pushed the boy so hard he was thrown against a wall ten feet away.

Funny things did happen to her all the time, actually. When she got mad or scared, something would always help. Once, while playing football, her foot missed the ball, but it still moved and she scored a goal. And once Hector was at school walking down the stairs with a pile of books when a boy pushed him. He fell and he should probably have broken at least one bone, if it wasn't for the fact that, somehow, the books piled up right where he would fall, preventing the accident.

"Yeah… wouldn't it make sense?" he said.

"I think so." Lily wasn't paying attention anymore.

She was too busy stargazing, trying to push her brain to remember all the shiny spots on the sky, hoping she would see a new one after her father was gone.

Magic wouldn't do her no good, unless it could bring her father back from the dead. Whether it existed or not, made no difference.

An owl hooted somewhere in the darkness. Lily was brought back from her thoughts and got up to look around. She had never seen an owl as close as that one sounded like. The sound of flapping wings made her look around to find two huge birds landing on the fence between her apartment's door and the common area.

"Oh, look, Hector, owls!"

"Be careful, Lily, they can be very dangerous." Hector took notice of the birds and pulled his friend back so she wouldn't do anything stupid, but she broke free of his arms easily.

"What are they carrying?" She ignored his warning and got closer, noticing they had envelops in their beaks. "Hector, they are mail owls!" Lily squealed. Then the animals let the envelops fall on the floor and flew away. The ginger girl immediately got the letters and opened them.

"Lily, you shouldn't be opening other people's correspondence…"

"This is not _other people's correspondence, _Hector, look! It's addressed to us!"

"How can it possibly be addressed to us?" Hector rolled his eyes, and got up to recover the letters from Lily's hands.

"I swear, Hector, look, this is for you and this is for me. They were here to bring these to us, Hector!"

"Lily, how can owls bring letters to us outside our houses? How can owls bring letters to begin with? Owls couldn't recognize…" But he stopped talking when he read what was written on the parchment.

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY_

_Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore_

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,_

_Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

_Dear Mr. Allen,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall_

_Deputy Headmistress_

On second page, there was a list of odd materials required for the school.

_UNIFORM_

_First-year students will require:_

_1\. Three sets of plain work robes_ _(black)_

_2\. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear_

_3\. One pair of protective gloves (dragon_ _hide or similar)_

_4\. One winter cloak (black, with silver fastenings)_

_Please note that all pupil's clothes should carry name tags._

_COURSE BOOKS_

_All students should have a copy of each of the following:_

_The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)_

_by Miranda Goshawk_

_A History of Magic_

_by Bathilda Bagshot_

_Magical Theory_

_by Adalbert Waffling_

_A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration_

_by Emeric Switch_

_One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_

_by Phyllida Spore_

_Magical Drafts and Potions_

_by Arsenius Jigger_

_Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_

_by Newt Scamander_

_The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection_

_by Quentin Trimble_

_OTHER EQUIPMENT_

_1 wand_

_1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)_

_1 set glass or crystal phials_

_1 telescope_

_1 set brass scales_

_Students may also bring, if they desire, an owl_ _OR a cat_ _OR a toad._

_PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS_

_ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICK_

_Yours sincerely,_

_Lucinda Thomsonicle-Pocus_

_Chief Attendant of Witchcraft Provisions_

"Well, someone wasted a lot of time on this prank."

"Hector, no one would waste time training owls just to play a prank."

"Lily, do you really think there is such thing as a School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?"

"Weren't you the one talking about magic existing just now?"

"Yes but… not like this! Not something we could be part of!"

"How can you tell? What about all the weird stuff that happens to us? Wouldn't it make sense? I think we should write back, Hector. I want to know."

They were interrupted by Lily's mother calling her to dinner, but the ginger woman froze once she saw what the two kids had in hands.

"Oh, Merlin's beard…" She said. "I should have seen this coming."


	3. Chapter 3

**He Who Must Not Be Named**

"It started twenty two years ago. And it lasted for eleven years." She started. "This wizard, whose name I dare not speak, started gathering other men, women and beasts, to try and control the world of magic. Some tried to stand up against him- And he killed them. He tortured and killed them. When I was younger, I used to be part of something we called the Order of the Phoenix and we fought his army. We were the last resistance against the Dark Lord." She went on, tears filling her eyes.

"People would go missing every day. Those were dark times. No one dared to get friendly with unknown people… We hardly trusted anyone we already knew. And no matter how we resisted, there was no light by the end of the tunnel. One day, a great friend of mine was caught and tortured. She died without saying a single word, but I wasn't so sure I wouldn't say anything either. So I fled that night. I never went far, never left the United Kingdom, but I made sure to disappear. I hid my wand, I didn't use magic. After three months, I got married to your father, and you were born six months after that."

"Did it ever end?" Hector asked cautiously.

"Yes, I still recall how it ended." She sounded very distant, as if the pain was still too terrible to look closely at the memory. "It was the middle of night when someone wearing a black cloak knocked our door. You were just a year old… I thought it was him, so I got your father up and told him to…" Lily could see her mother was making a real effort not to cry. "I told him to take you and run away. Disappear. I took my wand with me. I knew I would have to protect you… hold him off to give you a chance. But it wasn't him… It was a friend. He told me 'It's over. The Potters are dead. And so is the Dark Lord.' The Potters, Lily and James were part of the Order. They were friends, the best friends one could have, incredibly brave, and they resisted to death." Somehow, Lily felt her mother wasn't telling the whole truth, but decided not to push her.

"Did the Potters kill this Dark Lord?" Hector asked, trying not to be too invasive.

"Oh no. It was their baby."

"How can a baby kill a wizard?" Hector let slip through his mouth.

"Well, I will disappoint you now. After my friend left, I never had any contact with the magical world again. I don't know what happened on that night in Godric's Hollow."

"So… You are a witch. And so I am a witch. And what about Hector? And… If this evil wizard is dead, why didn't you go back?"

"I was ashamed. I had forsaken my friends… I left everything behind. There was nothing left to me… Until I realized you were a witch too. And Hector is a Muggleborn, for all I understand, unless his father was a wizard. Then I knew someday I would have to face the past… But I didn't expect it to be so soon."

"A what-born?" Hector asked, nearly offended.

"A Muggleborn. It's how we call it when a wizard is born in a non magical family."

"That's amazing..." Said Hector. "And where is this Hogwarts place?"

"Hogwarts is a school where you will learn to control and use magic on different fields. There's every sort of thing… from potions to flying on a broomstick."

"Broomsticks?!" Lily squealed. "I'd love to fly!"

"Oh, flying is amazing. There is a game, called quidditch… James used to play it. He was very good, one of the best. He was from Gryffindor."

"Gryffindor?"

"Hogwarts divides the students in four houses. There is Gryffindor, house of the brave. Slytherin is the house of the ambitious… they can be very prejudicious towards muggleborns. Ravenclaw is home to the most intelligent minds. And there is Hufflepuff. Hufflepuff doesn't get much recognition, but that doesn't mean they aren't amazing. It's a house for the kind, the friendly, those who protect." The woman didn't say it, but it got pretty clear that she herself was a Hufflepuff.

"So we are leaving our school and going to Hogwarts?"

"Yes. That's it. We have to send an owl… we have to go to London."

"London? Where are we going to find all this stuff?"

"There is a place in London called the Diagon Alley. And if I'm not mistaken, I still have some wizarding currency in Gringotts. The wizarding bank." She explained. "I suppose… I will have to convert my muggle money into Galleons. And so is your mother, Hector. Don't worry, though, things are cheap on the wizarding world."

The two kids were so confused they didn't even bother to ask what a Galleon was.

"I will talk to your mother and make her understand what's going on. I'll… I will tell her it is true."

She told the two kids to follow her into her room and showed them a twelve inch long notched stick. It was her wand.

"Each wand is unique. And it chooses it's owner."

The kids looked at each other with a doubtful gaze. How could a wand, an inanimate object, choose anything? But well… how could there be a parallel magical society in their world and no one know about it?

It was all so weird… And still, there they were, planning on traveling to a school for wizards because they were-wizards.

"Now, let's have dinner and then off to bed. It will be a long day tomorrow and I want you two to rest."

They did as she told. Eating in silence, the only noise as they dined was the spoons reaching the bottom of their bowls. They could barely taste the soup, since their brains were working so hard. In fact, one could nearly hear how loud they were thinking.

Hector left just after washing the dishes, without even giving Lily their usual hug. Lily didn't seem to mind and went straight to bed. She didn't get any sleep, of course, since she was too anxious for the next day.

So the next morning, when she realized the daylight was already coming through her window, Lily got up, took a shower and got dressed in less than ten minutes and when she got to the kitchen her mother was already there, preparing eggs and bacon.

"Would you put some bread in the toaster for me, dear?" She asked.

"Yes, mom." Lily did as she was told.

"I invited Rachel and Hector to have breakfast with us, so I can explain everything to her. I want to make it clear that she will probably not take it too well… Muggles are usually very shocked at first. She might even call us crazy or something like that. But she will get used to it, Rachel is a very optimistic woman."

"Mom, could you show me some magic?"

"What?"

"I would like to see it. Very very much."

Violet thought for a few seconds. She supposed it was alright, since Lily was a witch too and nobody could possibly see it.

"Alright, alright. I will show you a very simple spell, okay? So no one will get suspicious. Can you bring me a match?"

"Yes, mom." And she got a match from the drawer.

Violet pointed her wand to the match and said a few words. Then the match turned into a needle! A needle!

Lily widened her eyes.

Right then, Rachel knocked on the glass door and Violet hurried to open it.

As they had their breakfast, Hector and Lily were unusually quiet, staring at each other as they used to do before being able to talk. That was all very, very unusual and Rachel couldn't help but ask what was going on.

"Rachel, the kids received letters last night. They have a new school to go."

"What? No, Hector already has his vacancy at the new school… I already have his uniform!"

"It's no usual school, Rachel. It's a school fit for children like them."

"_Like them? _What the hell does it mean, Violet?"

"Well… How can a put that? Lily, could you go to your room and bring the letter for us?"

Again, Lily did as she was told. In no time she was back with the parchment in hands. She handed it to Rachel.

"There you go, Mrs. Allen."

"Thank you, dear." Rachel opened the parchment and read for a moment. Then she started shouting like crazy. They could barely understand what she was saying, but managed to get some words out of it. Among them, there were the words _prank, stupid_ and _idiots._ Violet patiently waited for Rachel to calm down and let her speak.

"You see, Rachel, I am, myself, a witch. What makes Lily a half-blood. As for Hector, he is what we call a muggleborn, which means you have no magical blood, but he does. It's not that uncommon."

"Violet, you have been a friend for all these years… What is it? You can tell me. Is it about Roger?" Violet smiled and shook her head.

"No, Rachel, it is true. Look." She got her wand and waved it. After reciting a few words, one of the cups on the table started to fly.

Rachel fainted.

She didn't wake up for a few seconds, but when she did, all the shouting started again. A few cups of tea were required until she got her temper back.

"So, what you are saying is that… They are going to a boarding school of witchcraft?"

Violet nodded. Lily held hands with Hector.

"Are you positive that Hector is a wizard?" Asked Rachel again.

"I am. He wouldn't receive a letter if he wasn't."

"Well… alright then. May I ask where you intend to find all those things in the letter?"

"There is a hidden place in London. I was thinking of taking them there today. Oh my! We have to answer to the letters!" She recalled. "Yes, we must go today. I'll bring Hector back by the evening."

Rachel nodded, trying to find her voice to answer properly.

"I will- I will sleep some more." She said as Violet and the children left to the street.


	4. Chapter 4

**The Leaky Cauldron**

It was warm outside. The weather was very pleasant and Violet promised to buy them ice cream.

The Edinburgh train station wasn't full on that mourning, so it wasn't hard to get in a train almost immediately after they arrived. They sat on four seats that surrounded a plastic table.

"I brought cards if you want to play." Said Hector nervously.

"Oh, you two can play. I've got a lot to think about. I'm a bit nervous about going back there, since it's been a while."

"It will be okay, mom." Lily looked at her with those deep gray eyes that seemed to see everything.

She and Hector were sitting at one side of the table. For a moment, looking at the two of them, Violet thought of Sirius. She had no idea where was Sirius. He never wrote to her, or anything. Nobody ever contacted her about him. Well, maybe that meant he was not dead, at least.

"I was wondering if my friend is alright."

"The one who went to our house that night you told us about?"

"Yes." Violet looked- sad?

"Okay." Said Lily, looking through the window. They spent all the trip without exchanging a word. Each one of them was thinking about what was going to happen when they got there.

Lily was anxious, wondering what everything was going to look like. Would objects fly? It was only natural for her to be a witch, despite the surprise with the letters. It was easy for her to understand that she belonged to that world. As for Hector, he was frightened that maybe it was all a mistake. And whenever Hector was nervous, he would open a book and read as if his life depended on it. Violet just kept her eyes on the window and the kids were unsure if she was looking outside or at the glass.

When they finally left the train at King's Cross, they were all hungry, so Violet said they would have something to eat at a place called The Leaky Cauldron. Apparently, it was a famous place to the wizarding world.

"I brought some wizarding currency I had hidden with my wand. I guess we can all eat." She discreetly showed some large gold coins to the children.

They walked and walked, and then walked some more, but neither of them saw any establishment where magic wands could possibly be sold. Until they were guided into an old shop, which oddly seemed to pass unseen by all people around except for them. There was no better name for the place for it than The Leaky Caldron, thought Lily.

It was dark inside. And yet it was somehow cosy.

"I can't believe my own eyes. Violet?" A voice came from over the balcony. "Violet Prewett?" The barman was a quite bald man.

"Hello, Tom. Well, my last name is Boyd now." She smiled. Prewett? That was her name, then?

"You are married then! And that girl… Is that girl your daughter?"

"Well, I was married. Widowed now. Anyway, this is Lily, my daughter. And that's her friend Hector. He also received a letter last night."

"I am most truly sorry about your loss. As for you, young lad, do I know your parents?"

"Oh, I don't think so. My mother isn't a witch. And I never knew my father." Tom nodded with a kind, smile that revealed more than a few missing teeth.

"Have you had any word from Molly?" Asked Violet.

"Oh, yes. Her and young Percy came here just yesterday to buy him a new uniform. He is a prefect now!"

"Prefect? Oh, how amazing! Molly must be incredibly proud. What about Fred and George, the twins? They were just babies when I left."

"Oh, two pranksters, but very good boys. All of them very kind, the Weasleys, all nine of them."

"Nine? Did they have two more children?" Violet sounded shocked. Her eyes were widened, while Lily and Hector tried to understand who were Percy and the other five children.

"Yes, yes, two more, a boy and a girl. The boy is going to Hogwarts this year, they've told me." The innkeeper said merrily.

"What about Fabian and Gideon? Did they have any children?"

The innkeeper looked away from Violet and the children, and Lily thought she saw a glimpse of anguish in his eyes. Finally, Tom looked back and stuttered in his answer.

"N-no, I don't think neither Fabian nor Gideon had any children."

"Oh, I will write to them! There's so much to catch up!" Violet seemed unaware of Tom's reaction, so Lily decided not to comment.

"I have an owl I can spare for a day or two if you need."

"That would be lovely, Tom. Meanwhile, me and the children would like to get something to eat."

"Oh, alright. Sit down, food and parchment will be on the table in a moment."

As they headed to their seats, Lily's eyes crossed with a thin, pale man with a hooked nose. He wore dark clothes, had dark eyes and dark, greasy, long hair. For some unknown reason, Lily immediately felt something extremely cold fall into her heart. Something about that man made her deeply sad. And for some reason she couldn't stop looking at him. Even when he stared back.

"Stop staring, Lily!" Violet scolded her.

"Sorry, mom." She finally looked away, just as the food arrived, floating. Also, an owl brought a piece of parchment and a quill along with it.

"An owl!" Shouted Lily as she reached for the animal's feathers. The bird didn't look happy, but wasn't annoyed by the contact either. Suddenly the girl remembered she could bring an owl with her to Hogwarts and considered asking her mother for one.

The food was very tasty, but not enough to take Violet's conversation with the innkeeper out of Lily's head.

"Mom, who are Molly, Gideon and Fabian?"

"They are my siblings."

So Lily had a family other than her mother? She wasn't sure whether she was mad or just curious. She decided to go for curious, in order not to start a fight.

"So I have cousins?"

"Seven cousins, to be exact. And an aunt, and three uncles."

"Wow…" Hector reacted, and Lily hoped she had been mistaken when she noticed something in his eyes that she took for jealousy.

Once they finished, Violet started writing her letter and let the two kids wander through the pub. They walked around and saw a few mysterious people. There was a woman smoking a pipe and a man wearing a turban. He talked to the children, but seemed so embarrassed they decided to leave him alone. Lily looked around and noticed that the other man, the one in black, was still staring at her. She gathered all her courage and decided to confront him.

"Why are you staring at me?"

"Why am _I_ staring at you?" He asked, coldly. "I was about to ask the very same question."

Lily blushed. A lot. For some reason, she felt really sad around that man. Not that he gave her a reason, he wasn't being rude, just cold.

"I… I'm sorry." She said. Still, she couldn't stop looking at him. She felt just like a baby looking obsessively at someone.

"Oh, my. Seems like we finally got you back, Violet." The man said, even collier, looking beyond Lily. Still, he didn't seem angry.

"Severus… It's been a while."

"Yes."

"How… How is everything?"

"I suppose you know exactly how things are." Answered the man called Severus. He seemed to be the coldest person Lily had ever met. Violet lowered her eyes.

"I… I see. Look, I need to go to Gringotts. Could you look after the kids for me? I'll be as quick as possible." Lily looked at Hector and she could tell he was frightened. The man called Severus nodded lazily and Violet left through the back door.

Lily looked around for a few moments, but got bored and took her attention back to that curiously bitter man.

"Ahm… Hi, I'm Lily." She put on her best smile and introduced herself.

However, the man called Severus reacted in the least expected way. It was just one second, but Lily could see a glimpse of sorrow in his eyes, and then confusion, followed by understandment. Then, Severus recomposed and put back his cold face.

"Is that so?"

"How did you get to know my mother?" Lily decided not to ask why her name bothered him.

"Well, aren't you an annoying one?" He replied.

Hector already had sat at the table and opened a book about basic chemistry.

"I'm not annoying, I'm curious!" She knew she should stop asking. She knew she was making him angry. But something inside her was fascinated by that man. For some reason, she felt he was someone to look up to.

"She was one year below me in school."

"How was she?"

"Well…" He granted "let's just say that, when she was your age, your mother was just like you." Lily didn't make any mistakes, his voice was still cool as ice, but he didn't sound like a dead person anymore.

"You were friends with her?"

"I wouldn't go that far." He pulled a book out of his cloak. No matter how hard Lily tried, she couldn't see where the hell it had been hidden. "But we did go to Hogwarts together."

"But… what was she like? She never mentioned anything about Hogwarts until last night…"

"Then you shouldn't ask questions to a stranger." He answered. Lily could spot sarcasm in his voice, yes, but not a bitter type of sarcasm. Neither it was playful.

"But you are not a stranger if my mom knows you."

She stretched her neck to get a peek in his book and saw many notes and texts and pictures of plants she had never seen.

"You teach potions at Hogwarts!" She shouted, accidentally dragging attention from people in the pub. "I'm sorry!"

"Yes, I suppose I will be teaching you Potions for the following years." He answered, now clearly annoyed. He was probably regretting his decision of taking care of the children.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to drag any attention."

"How very perceptive. I wonder whether you will be sorted in Hufflepuff or Slytherin." For some reason, the man closed the book. Had he taken interest on her curiosity? Or was it just him giving up on any chance he had to focus on his reading?

"I don't think I'll be in Slytherin. My mom said they don't like muggleborns… And I really like Hector."

"That's not true. But still, you are a pure-blood, the test might sort you in Slytherin."

"I'm not a pure-blood. My father was a muggle." Lily was shocked that she was already using those words as if she was raised in that environment. Then she noticed that Snape had a very odd expression on his face.

"Are you absolutely sure? are you not Sirius Black's daughter?"

"No. That's for sure." She answered and resisted the impulse of asking who the hell was Black and why did Severus sounded so angry when he said his name.

"That is surprising." He concluded after a while.

"Lily, Hector?" Violet's voice sounded from behind them. She had just passed through the door to the backyard. "I would like to have a word with Severus. Could you go ahead and follow the list in your letters? The stores will be easy to find. I'll give you some extra money so you can buy ice cream."

Lily suddenly felt a chill in her stomach, frightened about being left alone in an unknown world. But still, she did as she was told and grabbed Hector' hand so they would walk together through the passage her mother had opened on the brick wall outside by tapping bricks on the right spots.

It was wonderful.


	5. Chapter 5

**The Diagon Alley**

The Diagon Alley was, perhaps, the most amazing place Lily had ever seen. It was amazingly colorful, and everywhere there were shop announcements of every single magic object imaginable. People walked around in colorful cloaks, with their large families. Some looked richer. Oddly, all of those witches and wizards seemed to have stopped on time in a different century. Lily and Hector turned their heads left and right so fast and obsessively it was amazing they didn't get dizzy.

When their euphoria finally gave them a break, Lily managed to ask Hector where he wanted to go first.

"Let's just walk through the alley and keep one eye on our lists. After we are done, we buy some icecream." He said. Lily could tell Hector was just as excited as she was, but kept most of it to himself.

They walked, completely unable to keep their eyes off the shops and what was being sold on the shops. Even the people doing their shopping was interesting. Everything, _everything_ was unusual. There were caldrons, books, quills, potion ingredients…

"Broomsticks!" She squealed, pulling Hector towards a shop called Quality Quiddich Supplies. There was a beautiful broom in exposition, which carried the words _Nimbus 2000_ written in gold letters on one side. Neither of them had ever seen a broom, but judging by the appearance and by other children's reactions to it, that was the finest model available. Hector had to drag Lily from the shop in order to move on, or she would never have left.

"Come on, Lily, first years are not allowed to have their own brooms anyway. Let's go to the book shop."

"Alright, alright…" She said, still not wanting to go.

"Blimey…" Hector muttered to himself when they stepped into the shop called Flourish and Blotts. There were all sorts of books that a mind could possibly imagine.

There were books about hexes and curses, books about runes, books for children, books filled with pictures, with peculiar symbols. Some were just as large as paving stones and others small enough to easily fit in a pocket. There were even books about muggles. And, as both were amazed, the pictures in the books moved. _Moved!_

They went through the whole book list and then looked for some more. Hector found an encyclopedia, while Lily got her hands on a book called Quidditch Through The Ages. Well, wasn't that amazing? They paid for the books and walked out of the shop, nearly missing it.

It was easy to find somewhere to buy the robes, as there was a shop called Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occasions. Madam Malkin was a very kind woman and quickly adjusted the robes to their bodies. There were two large boys also getting their robes pinned by an unknown woman. One of them was especially large and looked especially dumb.

"Hello." The less-stupid looking boy said.

"Hi." Hector and Lily answered timidly at the same time.

"I'm Vincent Crabbe and this is Gregory Goyle."

"I'm Lily Boyd." She said, leaving Hector to introduce himself. The two boys put on a disgusted expression.

"Oh. Muggleborns." Mocked The one called Goyle. "Shouldn't be sent to Hogwarts, that's what my father says."

Lily knew that she herself wasn't a muggleborn, therefore the offense was not meant to her. But Hector was. And she could nearly feel how embarrassed he was. For some reason, maybe because he was way too shy, Hector never stood up for himself. Even when he got bullied at their old school because of his braids, Lily was the one to hit the boys who mocked him.

That was the reason why she moved towards the boys, with her hands in fists, with a flaming gaze in her gray eyes. However, Hector held her back. When she looked up, she could see that her friend was not upset or angry, as he looked at her with a reassuring smile. Of course he wasn't comfortable with the situation, but obviously had decided that fighting Hogwarts students even before going to Hogwarts wouldn't be a very good idea.

"There you go, dear." Said madam Malkin. They paid her and left the shop with their robes. They looked around for a moment, trying to find Violet's red hair. She was nowhere to be seen.

"Hector, who do you think is Black?"

"What?"

"Did you not hear what that man told to me? Severus. He was very surprised that my father wasn't this man named Black. His family name, I guess."

"Well… I wasn't listening. That man frightened me. Weren't you frightened?"

"No, of course not! Couldn't you see it? Severus was terribly devastated at something. Nobody can be as cold as that naturally."

"What do you mean?" Hector was a very good reader, but his skills applied to books only. He was so introspective that, sometimes, he couldn't actually see behind other people's faces and voices. The only person he knew enough to understand was, in fact, Lily. Not that he wasn't caring towards anyone he loved, it's just that he didn't allowed himself. Hector wanted to know _things_, not feelings.

"I think he lost someone."

"Aren't you just saying that because of your dad?" If Hector were anyone else, she would have punched him right there and then. But she liked how direct he could be sometimes. "I don't mean to be rude." He completed.

"You weren't. I like that you go straight to the point." That was Lily's answer, while Hector pulled her into the caldron shop. "Of course it is because of my father, though. How could I understand that he lost someone, if I hadn't lost my father?"

Hector stared at her for a moment, worried. Until the night before, Lily had been crying about her father, unable to talk about him. And then she suddenly started talking about how that was part of her life experience and how much she had learned from it? He, himself, still couldn't talk about his father and he had never met him. They continued talking about it while they bought their caldrons.

"Anyway… Do you think this person could be my dad?"

"Well, you have to consider the fact that I am just one day older than you and there's no way I could know."

"I don't even look like my dad, I'm exactly like my mom. There was no way anyone but her could know…"

Hector thought for a moment, looking at the ceiling to seek inspiration for his conclusions.

"Why don't you ask her, then?"

"Would you ask your mom if she ever cheated on your father?" Lily looked at him, wondering how he had managed to say such nonsense. "Anyway, where do you think this man is?"

"Probably mad at your mother because she married someone else."

They became silent once they left the caldron shop to look for potion ingredients. There was the Apothecary, and there was a funny smell coming from there. It was slightly dark inside and the kids spend some time examining a unicorn's horn. How beautiful it was… There were also things such as dragon scales, strange plants, thestral hair… What was a thestral, anyway?

It took quite some time for them to notice that the man from the pub, Severus, was also in the shop, since he was probably the most silent man to ever walk on earth. The fact that he was there meant that Violet was also somewhere in the alley. But Severus still hadn't noticed them and had the most disturbed expression on his face, so Lily whispered to Hector that they shouldn't talk to him and waited for him to leave before paying for their ingredients. They found Violet outside, carrying a cage with an owl inside, and a cat.

"An owl!" Shouted Lily, instantly forgetting about her previous conversation with Hector and running to see the animal.

"So you can send letters throughout the year, and the cat can keep you company." Explained Violet. She handed the owl cage to Lily and the cat to Hector, who had always wanted a cat.

"Thank you, Mrs. Boyd." He said timidly while Lily shouted "thank you so much, Mom!"

The barn owl inside the cage friendly hooted at the girl.

"Well, I see you got the books, the caldron and the ingredients. I suppose the only item left is the wand."

She guided the children towards a narrow, shabby shop with peeling gold letters on the sign that wrote _Ollivanders. Makers of fine wands since 382 B.C_

They barely fit inside the shop, so Violet waited outside with their stuff. A bell rang when the two kids went inside. They looked around, waiting for something to happen, when suddenly a very old man appeared at the balcony.

"Another Weasley?" He said, seeming annoyed. "I just sold your brother a wand yesterday."

"That was probably my cousin. I don't know him, though." Said Lily.

"Oh, then I'm surprised indeed. I never expected that your mother would ever come back to our world, even if she had a magical child. I still remember the wand I sold her. Oak, thirteen inches, unicorn hair for the core. A specially beautiful female, if you ask me. Fairly flexible, if I recall it properly. Let's see what destiny has kept for you, young lass."

Ollivander left for a moment and came back with a wand.

"If you do follow your mother's steps, this one will do for you. It's unicorn hair inside orange tree. Go on, try it." He handed her the wand. Lily held it for a second and Ollivander almost immediately took it off her hand. "No, not this one." He said, although Lily was unsure how he could possibly know it. "We will know when you get the one. You will feel it attaching to you."

Lily tried a couple more wands before she got the right one. When she took hold of a bendy ten inch wand made of Silver Lime with Unicorn Hair for the core, she felt somewhat warm. As if someone had lit a fire just next to her. No. Inside her. She could feel the wand's fidelity towards her as gold and silver sparkles came out of it's end.

"Well… that is it then. It chose you. The unicorn that produced the hair to this wand was an especially kind one… very friendly towards me and anyone who went near it. I expect… we can expect the same from you." He said. Then turned to Hector. "As for you, young man, I see that I have an beechwood wand with dragon heartstring for the core that might fit for you." He went to get it and was back in a moment. The man had been precise. That was the wand for Hector. It's red sparkles went higher than the ones produced by Lily's wand.

They paid for the wands and left the shop to get their promised ice cream.

In their way back home, Lily wouldn't stop asking her mother about Severus. She only got a few answers despite her efforts. Severus Snape had once been her mother's classmate and she had deep respect for him, although they had never really been friends. He had hated the man called Sirius, and hated even more James Potter. Violet stopped answering once Lily started asking the "whys". She didn't get any straight answer about Black either.

The four hours in a train didn't make anything better. Besides being bored and insisting on asking questions, Lily still had to hide the wand and ignore the weird glances at the owl in the cage. They spent the whole trip trying to decide what would be the proper name for a female barn owl. At the end, Lily decided to go for Helga, in honour to Helga Hufflepuff, the founder of house Hufflepuff, her mother's house. She wondered on which house she would go. And where Hector would find his place.


	6. Chapter 6

**Platform 9 ¾**

The next months after the Diagon Alley episode were terribly boring. Violet seemed simply too nervous to talk about anything, perhaps deeply disturbed. She received only one letter from her sister Molly, telling Violet she would like to meet at the train station.

Lily stayed at Hector's until the end of summer break. They had sent Helga to Hogwarts confirming that they would be there for the year by the beginning of the term.

Rachel herself seemed to be avoiding the kids and they spent most of their time in the park near their house, or in Hector's bedroom, reading the books. Lily took extra care to the books about Potions and Transfiguration while Hector was much more interested on History of Magic and Charms. Once, in the park, Hector asked Lily if she felt safe by going to an unknown school at an unknown part of the country and Lily, for the first time, gave it a thought. No. She didn't feel safe. But she felt as if she could no longer live without this in her life. She needed to be a witch. It was in her blood. She could not talk to her old schoolmates without feeling awkward, or out of place.

Violet decided it was time to go to London on the day before their departure. It was really hard for Rachel to say goodbye to Hector, since she had never, in her life, been alone without her son for more than a day. Despite being always positive, Rachel cried a lot when Violet walked with Hector and Lily through the door. This time, in the train, they talked all trip long, nonstop. Violet told them about all the secret passages she remembered, warned them about Filch the caretaker and his cat , about Peeves the poltergeist, and about following the rules. She even dared to tell them a little bit about her old friends in Hogwarts, but not once mentioned the name Black. Lily seriously suspected that her mother had been so terribly disturbed for the last month because of that man, because of something Severus Snape had told her.

Once more, Violet guided the children to the Leaky Caldron

When they arrived at King's Cross station, Violet handed two tickets to the children, which informed that they should be departing at 11:00 AM from platform 9 ¾.

"Wait, 9 ¾? That platform doesn't really exist… does it?" Asked Hector. Violet answered by telling them to stay quiet, that she would show them how to get in the right platform.

They walked to the pillar that divided the space between platforms 9 and 10 and Violet made them wait until there were no muggles around. Then she bowed down to look at the kids in the eye and told them to run towards the pillar. She said it was really important not to be afraid and do it without being seen by the muggles.

"What?!" Hector sounded pasmed. Lily looked at him, understanding that his insecurity came from the boy's deep trust issues. Perhaps it was due to the fact that his father left their family when he was really, really young.

"Alright. Lily, can you go first? You just have to run for it, will be really quick. Wait for us at the other side, alright?" Violet knew exactly how brave Lily was, and knew that her daughter wasn't scared.

Lily ran towards the pillar, keeping her mind elsewhere, determined to show her friend that he was safe and had nothing to fear, even when she doubted she would ever make it through the hard pillar. Then she reached it. And instead of having all her stuff breaking in the impact, she slipped through the pillar and appeared at the other side, at platform 9 ¾. She could tell where even before looking at the sign, because the crimson train in the platform was very old, and the people walking around, saying farewell to their children, were most definitely not Muggles.

Her mother and Hector made it through the pillar just moments after that and Violet immediately started looking around, as if looking for someone. Then she saw who she was looking for. A redheaded woman was yelling at someone.

Hector and Lily exchanged looks, finding the same insecurity in each other's eyes. Both had already put the pieces together, understanding that the woman was her mother's sister. "Molly!" Violet called loudly, walking fast towards her. Lily and Hector followed her.

The red headed woman turned to look at who had called her name, and her mouth went from a straight line to a wide O, along with her eyes. Then, her expression changed again as she began crying while hugging Violet.

"My baby sister" were the only Lily managed to understand.

It took a long moment for the women to finally separate, and the one called Molly hadn't stopped crying.

"Oh, Vi… I thought I'd never see you again. I thought I had lost all of you." Her voice sounded cracked.

"I'm s-so sorry, Molly. I-I didn't know about Gideon and Fabian. I should have stayed." Violet sobbed.

Only then Lily understood Tom's look at the Leaky Caldron. Gideon and Fabian, her uncles, her mother's brothers, were dead. That was probably what Severus had told her, that was why Violet had seemed so shaken over the weeks.

"It wasn't your fault, dear. I'm so glad you came back."

"I was so ashamed." Violet hugged her sister again and they cried together a little longer.

"Everything is fine now, Vi. It's over, you're back." Molly patted her back and her voice sounded comforting.

It was only when the moved apart that Lily noticed a group of five red headed young people looking at the scene at the other side of the women. There was a tall, thin boy wearing horn-rimmed spectacles; two precisely identical boys with a shorter and stockier built, and also a longer nose, than the first; a boy that seemed to be the same age as Lily and Hector, and also had the long, thin body built of the older brother, only with his mother's long nose, which had some dirt on. Last was a girl in a cart, younger than Lily, with a mane of red hair - only it wasn't curly like Lily's - and bright brown eyes which looked at Lily as if she were a large bowl of ice cream.

Molly finally turned to look at Lily and Hector, and the kindest smile appeared in her still teary face.

"I see we finally have another girl in the family besides Ginny!"

The little girl on the cart finally ran towards the older girl and hugged her with no previous warning. Lily wasn't expecting for that and blushed, feeling fulfilled. The simple presence of those people made her feel like part of something.

"That's Lily, my daughter. She's the one I wrote you about. And this is Hector, her best friend and… well, my nephew, basically."

"Oh, it is very nice to meet you, my dears. These are Percy, Fred, George, Ron and Ginny. Ron will be in the same year as you two" The red headed boy who got dirt on his nose, nodded. Then Molly turned her face to Lily. "Oh, I see you have your father's eyes… and her curly hair - I don't really know where those came from."

"But you got our traditional hair colour." Said Violet. Lily smiled, still being hugged by the little girl. She looked down at her cousin.

"Hi. I'm Lily." She said automatically. But she couldn't stop thinking that no, she didn't have her father's eyes.

"I'm Ginny!" The girl answered and smiled, showing a little gap between her teeth that would certainly be fixed by the end of the year.

"Oh, great! So the family grew up in the last few seconds!" One of the twins grinned from ear to ear at Lily. "We will certainly have a great time together. My mom made a mistake, in fact _I'm _Fred, and this is George. Don't try too hard to identify us." Lily smiled back.

"Don't you dare influence your cousin with your awful behaviour, Fred!" Shouted Molly.

"Don't worry, Mum, I'm sure she will learn everything on her own."

"Well, Molly, I think we all know that the one that played pranks in this family was me, to begin with." Violet giggled, her face completely dry and her eyes no longer red.

"Anyway, if I get one more owl from Hogwarts telling me that you've blown up a toilet or…"

"Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet!"

"Great idea, though. Thanks, mum."

"It's not funny! And look after Ron." She shouted.

"Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us."

"Shut up!" Shouted Ron. Violet giggled again.

Lily had ran out of words to say, or any reactions at all. She was overwhelmed by how amazing her family seemed to be. Also, she could tell that her mother had missed Molly. More than that, Lily realized that she, herself, had missed that family that she had never known. When she looked back, smiling at Hector, she felt her heart sink when she saw his sad gaze. Hector only had his mother. And there was no hidden family to save him from loneliness. She was the closest thing to a family he had in the wizarding world.

"Come, Hector!" She said. Then turned to her family again

Hector smiled timidly, but was soon bombed by Fred and George, the twins, with thousands of questions about muggles. Hector no longer looked sad or lonely.

"Hey, Mom, guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?" Asked one of the twins, at last. Ron looked excited too.

"You know that black-haired boy who was near us in the station? Know who he is?" Started Fred.

"Who?"

"Harry Potter!"

Lily stopped paying attention to anything else. She should have expected to see the famous Harry Potter on that year, since he was just a little bit younger than herself. Ginny got really, really excited at the idea of seeing the boy in the train. Lily looked back, and then looked up, meeting a young boy's bright green eyes. His face told her to not say a word.

She turned to see that her mother was also looking at the boy in the train, and had tears in her eyes again.

"Oh, Mom, can I go on the train and see him, Mom, eh please…" Asked Ginny.

"You've already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn't something you goggle at in a zoo. Is he really, Fred? How do you know?"

"Asked him. Saw his scar. It's really there - like lightning." Fred was really, really excited.

"Poor dear - no wonder he was alone, I wondered. He was ever so polite when he asked how to get onto the platform."

"Never mind that, do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?"

Their mother suddenly became very stern. Lily couldn't help but agree with her. Couldn't they see how much pain that boy must have been through?

"I forbid you to ask him, Fred. No, don't you dare. As though he needs reminding of that on his first day at school."

"All right, keep your hair on."

Violet looked equally stern, but had a vague look in her eyes.

"It's not a pleasant sight." She said behind them. six red heads turned to look at the woman in shock. "So don't ask him, boys. It's not something you'd want to remember."

The twins nodded, still open mouthed.

A whistle sounded.

"Hurry up!" Said Molly. All of them climbed on the train. They leaned through the windows to say goodbye. Hector waved goodbye and entered a compartment, leaving Lily to talk to her mother.

"You take care, alright? Follow the rules, do your work, pay attention to the classes and don't get into fights." Violet held Lily's hand.

"Alright, Mum. I'll do it."

"Learn as much as you can and have fun. Send me an owl once you are there."

"I will. I'll write to you every week." Promised the girl.

"I love you."

"I love you too." Shouted Lily when the train started moving. She saw Ginny trying to run along with the train, half crying half smiling. It didn't take more than two minutes for her mother to become invisible in the distance. Her heart tightened in insecurity, but she ignored it and walked through the train to find Hector sitting in a compartment along with her cousin and a black-haired boy with bright green eyes who she had understood to be Harry Potter. The twins had just left the compartment, heading to the middle of the train.

"Are you really Harry Potter?"

The boy nodded.

"Oh - well, I thought it could be one of Fred and George's jokes. And do you really have…"

Harry pulled back his bangs, showing a thin scar that looked like a lightning.

"Is that where you know who…"

"Yes. But I don't remember it."

"Nothing?" Insisted Ron.

"Well, I remember lots of green light, but that's it."

Green light. Lily had dreams with green light sometimes. But she didn't say anything. In fact, she was annoyed at the absence of sensitivity from her cousin.

"So… I'm Hector, and this is Lily." Hector, for the first time in his life, made the first movement.

But Harry's eyes dropped to the ground. Lily closed her eyes. She should have predicted this.

"I-I'm sorry, did I say something?"

"Don't you remember, Hector? Lily was Harry's mother." Lily said between her teeth. Harry raised his eyes again.

"How do you know that?"

"My mom was friends with your parents, I think."

Harry widened his green eyes, which had a new gleam.

"I wouldn't expect her to tell much, anyway. She never told anything." Lily finished, but Harry's eyes didn't drop again as she expected, but kept staring at her.

"Are all of your families wizards?" Harry seemed to find Ron just as interesting as Ron found him.

"Er, yes I think so. My mother has a second cousin who is an accountant, but we don't talk about him."

"So you must know loads of magic already!" Said Harry, looking at Ron and Lily.

"Not really, my father was a muggle… And I was raised as a muggle all my life, mom never told me anything about magic, or about the war, until last month when the letters arrived." Said Lily. Oddly, Harry seemed to identify with her.

"And I'm muggleborn." Said Hector.

"I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like?"

"Horrible -well, not all of them. My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers."

"Five," said Ron. For some reason, he was looking gloomy. "I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left - Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat."

Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat gray rat, which was asleep.

Helga beaked her cage, interested on the rat. She could easily have eaten the rat if the cage wasn't closed. Ron told them about how useless the rat, Scabbers, was useless and how his brother, Percy had gotten an owl for becoming prefect.

"They couldn't aff–" Ron's ears got pink and he looked at Lily's owl and Hector' cat. Lily thought there was nothing wrong with not being able to afford an owl. She really thought Helga had been a very expensive gift. Hector and his mother struggled to be able to live where they lived. And when she looked at Harry, she could tell he wasn't about to mock Ron either.

Then the boy told them all about the Dursleys and how awful they were, not telling him about his own origins. He even had to wear his spoiled cousin's old clothes. Harry, indeed, looked even thinner in all those oversized clothes.

"And then Hagrid told me. I really didn't know anything about about being a wizard, or my parents or Voldemort."

Ron gasped. Harry had said his name. It was the first time she had heard the name.

"What?" Asked Harry.

"You said his name." Explained Lily. "I had never heard it. My mother never said it."

"Yes. I would have thought… you of all people…" Said Ron.

"I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name. I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn… I bet… I bet I'm the worst in the class."

"You won't be. There's loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quick enough."

While they had been talking, the train had carried them out of London. Now they were speeding past fields full of cows and sheep. They were quiet for a time, watching the fields and lanes flick past.

Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"

Lily and Hector had traded their muggle money for galleons and hurried to buy a few sweets to share. Ron muttered that he had brought sandwiches. That made Lily and Hector exchange looks and buy some extra sweets for Ron. That's when they realized that Harry was far richer than the two of them together, since he decided to simply buy some of everything. He placed all the treats onto an empty seat.

"Hungry, are you?" Commented Ron.

"Starving." Said Harry, as Lily offered Ron a pumpkin pasty.

Ron complained about his sandwiches, which were dry since Molly didn't have much time while caring for all of them. For a split second, Lily felt guilty about having her mother all to herself.

Harry offered them sweets and they ate while discussing about chocolate frogs, and the cards that came along with it. The card about Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster, read

ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS

Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.

The three of them also had to explain to Ron that, in muggle word, pictures didn't move. He was more surprised at that information than Lily, Hector and Harry had been surprised by seeing that Albus Dumbledore's portrait had disappeared from the card.

As the countryside flew outside the window, lots of things happened. A round faced boy asked them if they had seen his toad and then left.

Ron was about to try a spell to turn Scabbers yellow. That's when a girl with lots of hair and already wearing Hogwarts' robes opened the door and asked again if they had seen the toad.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."

She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.

"Er - all right."

He cleared his throat.

"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast asleep.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard - I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough - I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"

She said all this very fast.

Hector and Lily looked at each other and by looking agreed that the fast-talking girl was really boring and decided to go put their robes on. By the time they went back, there was a mess in the cabin. Scabbers had been thrown on the floor and seemed to be asleep again. Hermione seemed to be very angry at them both, since they apparently had been fighting even before arriving at Hogwarts. Then she left them to put their robes on.

A voice sounded, warning the students that the train would arrive in five minutes. It instructed them to leave their luggage on the train and it would all be taken to Hogwarts separately.


	7. Chapter 7

**The Castle**

Lily's stomach felt very funny. Hector looked at Lily and held her hand, as he usually did when she was nervous. The train slowed down and eventually stopped. People pushed their way towards the door and out on a tiny, dark platform. Lily bet this one too was invisible to muggles. It was really cold outside and Lily could barely see anything, so she held onto Hector' robes. For a moment, she wondered if all those letters had been sent from some psychopath who would kill all the children. Then she kicked the thought out of her head by thinking about when she would be able to get Helga back to send a letter to her mother.

Then, a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students and Lily saw the man that matched Harry's description of Hagrid. An enormous hairy man with a kind look.

"Firs' years! Firs' years follow me! Over here!" Then he looked down at Harry, as Lily could see, and greeted him. "C'mon, follow me… Any more firs' years? Mind yer step now!"

The first years followed Hagrid through a steep, narrow and slippery path. Lily and Hector kept slipping and stumbling, holding onto each other for balance. Nobody was speaking, probably because everyone was too focused on trying to remain standing and walking.

"Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a see." Hagrid called over and Lily managed to take a look up, getting a few red curls out of her eyes. It was the most amazing sight she had ever seen.

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. On the other side of it, there was a mountain. Standing on the top of the mountain, there were windows sparkling on the starred night and illuminating the huge castle's towers. She looked up to see Hector and, even in the darkness, she could spot the same amazement expression she was wearing.

"No more'n four to a boat." Hagrid called again. Lily looked around, trying to find the boats. There they were, sitting in the water by the shore. Lily pulled Hector in a boat in which there were sitting with two identical twin girls called Parvarti and Padma Patil. They all heard Hagrid yell "FORWARD!" and then the fleet of little boats departed all at once.

Lily looked at the water. It looked as smooth as glass. Then she looked up at the sky and noticed that she had never seen such a starred sky. She could see constellations and planets and… Bloody hell, she could see the whole universe. And there, in the very center of everything, stood Hogwarts. It looked just as majestic as the sky.

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid all of a sudden. They all bend their heads and the boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that covered an opening in the cliff. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor. Hector, being the taller, clambered out first and then helped Lily and the twins. They took a look around.

"I think we are under the castle." Said Hector.

"Yes, I think so. Oh, Hector, I wish my dad could see where we are now. He loved castles."

"Yeah, I remember when he took us to see the Edinburgh castle… And then we had ice cream and watched that play on the Fringe festival."

Oddly, Lily didn't feel sad anymore. She felt like she had the best parents anyone could ask for and, after all, nobody could be happy forever. But, for the first time, she understood that the fact that he had been taken from her didn't change anything. She loved him, he loved her. All those experiences were still there, they were part of her.

The toadless boy, Neville, had his toad given back to him by Hagrid when the giant man was checking the boats for forgotten items. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto the grass around the castle. It was even bigger than they had thought from the distance.

"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?" Asked Hagrid as he raised one gigantic fist and knocked on the castle door.

It swung open at once and a tall, black haired witch wearing emerald green robes and a stern expression came to greet them. Hagrid left and she told the first years to step inside. The entrance hall was so big an entire house could easily fit inside.

Then the witch guided them through the hall and into a small chamber near to a doorway through which Lily could hear hundreds of voices. The rest of the school was probably already in there.

"Welcome to Hogwarts." She said. "The start-of-term-feast will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like a family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room."

Then she explained how all of the houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin, all had its own outstanding wizards and witches. She explained the points system and how, by the end of the year the house with most points would be awarded the house cup, a great honor.

"The sorting ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting. I shall return when we a ready for you."

Lily looked up at Hector' hair and envied him for a moment. He had it braided on the day before their journey to Hogwarts, so it was perfectly in place. As for her hair, Hector tried to take leaves out of it, since they tended to get stuck in her curls, but it was too much. Ultimately, he pulled all her hair back on a ponytail.

"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" She heard Harry asking.

"Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking." Said Ron.

Lily wasn't too worried, she was used to tests. But Hector started biting his nails. He hated tests. It always put him through a lot of distress, despite his great marks.

"Don't worry." She said. "You will do well."

"That's not what I am worried about. What if we are sorted into different houses? All that thing about studying, sleeping and eating..."

"Oh, Hector, don't be silly. We were in different classrooms in our old school, remember? It never stopped us." But Lily was just as worried as Hector. Hogwarts wasn't anything like their old school. Not because of magic, but because they would remain there through the whole year. They wouldn't be able to sleep at each other's house. Maybe they wouldn't even be able to study together. "We are probably staying on the same house anyway."

"How can you tell? We are nothing like each other. If we had just met, we wouldn't be friends at all. I read that the ceremony sorts students into the house most fit to their personality."

"Well… I can't spot many other insecure nerds in the crowd." Lily joked. "Besides, we are family, we will always be together somehow."

"We are not actually family, though." He pointed.

The discussion was completely forgotten when all the students gasped at once when about twenty ghosts streamed through the wall. All pearly-white, slightly transparent, not at all interested on the first years as the talked to each other. They seemed to be arguing. There was one, that looked like a fat little monk, who was saying "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance..."

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost. I say… What are you all doing here?"

The ghosts finally seemed to notice the first years. Nobody answered.

"New students!" said the Friar. "About to be sorted, I suppose."

Lily, along with a few other students, nodded.

"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff." Said the Friar. "My old house, you know?"

Than that was the Hufflepuff ghost. Her mother's house ghost.

McGonagall suddenly came back and told the first years to form a line before following her into the Great Hall. Lily was walking ahead of Hector, who had a protective hand over her shoulders. One could say they were nearly paranoid about each other's security.

But as soon as they walked into the Great Hall, Hector let go of her. It was amazing. There were thousands and thousands of lit candles floating in midair and somehow there was no wax dropping. The other students were sitting at four long tables on which there were shiny golden plates and goblets. Faces stared at them with curiosity. At the top of the hall, there was also a long table where the teachers were sitting, including Severus and the man with a turban from the Leaky Caldron. Lily looked up at the ceiling and then pulled Hector' robes and told him to look up. From inside, they could see the glittering stars in the sky, just as starred as it looked outside.

"It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, a History." She heard Hermione whispering to Harry. Hector looked at Lily with his mouth open, but then closed it again when he heard Hermione saying it. Maybe Hector would end up in the same house as the girl.

Lily looked behind her and saw the potions master Severus and smiled at him. He didn't smile back, but his eyes glittered in a different way for half a second.

Professor McGonagall placed a four legged stool in front of the first years and, on top of it, placed a pointed wizard's hat. A very old hat. It was all patched and frayed and dirty. If she didn't know better, she would say that hat belonged to the first wizard to ever exist. Was that a joke? Did the test have something to do with theater? However, everyone seemed to have a deep respect for the hat and all the students on the tables were staring at it. Then the hat started singing.

_"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,_

_But don't judge on what you see,_

_I'll eat myself if you can find_

_A smarter hat than me._

_You can keep your bowlers black,_

_Your top hats sleek and tall,_

_For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

_And I can cap them all._

_There's nothing hidden in your head_

_The Sorting Hat can't see,_

_So try me on and I will tell you_

_Where you ought to be._

_You might belong in Gryffindor,_

_Where dwell the brave at heart,_

_Their daring, nerve and chivalry,_

_Set Gryffindors apart;_

_You might belong in Hufflepuff_

_Where they are just and loyal,_

_Those patient Hufflepuffs are true,_

_And unafraid of toil;_

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_

_If you've a ready mind,_

_Where those of wit and learning,_

_Will always find their kind;_

_Or perhaps in Slytherin,_

_You'll make your real friends,_

_Those cunning folk use any means,_

_To achieve their ends._

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

_And don't get in a flap!_

_You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

_For I'm a Thinking Cap!"_

The entire hall burst into applause as the hat finished it's song. The hat bowed at all the four tables.

So they had to try the hat? Was that it? The hat would understand what went on inside their brains and set them on the right houses? Well, it would be okay, right? She looked at Hector, who seemed even more worried than before. Well, their brains were definitely nothing alike. While Lily was brave, protective, interactive and understanding, Hector was smart, intelligent, devoted and shy. In which house could they both fit?

McGonagall stepped forward with a long piece of parchment in hands.

"When I call your name, you will put the hat on and sit on the stool to get sorted." She said. And then proceeded to call the student's names, one by one. "Abbot, Hannah" she called.

A pink faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled and nearly fell when she walked to the stool and put the hat on. She had barely sat on the stool when the hat shouted

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit with them. The Ghost of Fat Friar merrily waved at her. Lily looked at people from Hufflepuff. They did look just and loyal.

"Allen, Hector." Called McGonagall.

Hector squeezed Lily's hand for one moment and looked at her with his deep black eyes. She tried to give him a reassuring smile, but failed miserably. The boy stepped forwards and put the hat on. Even with his voluminous hair, the hat still covered his eyes. The hat stayed quiet for more than a few seconds as Hector sat down and waited on the stool. Then the hat shouted.

"RAVENCLAW!"

Ravenclaw, the house that valued intelligence. Hector took a deep look at Lily before turning and walking towards the Ravenclaw table, where everyone clapped and cheered just as much as Hufflepuff table.

"Bones, Susan." Called McGonagall again. The girl was also sorted into Hufflepuff and then scuttled off to Hufflepuff's table. Everyone was cheering again.

"Boyd, Lily." For one moment, Lily's heart sank into her chest. Then she took a long breath and stepped forwards. She put the hat on and it covered her eyes. Then she sat down and looked at the darkness inside the hat. She had the odd feeling of staring into her own mind.

_"Oh, your friend… I just sorted him into Ravenclaw, didn't I?" _ The hat spoke to Lily and she understood it was all in her mind.

"Yes. Yes you did. And I will miss him very much if you sort me in a different house."

_"Then you would rather be in a house you don't belong with than leaving a friend… I see, I see." _Lily felt in her heart that she would be sorted in a different house and then started conceiving plans to manage to see Hector. But her sense of ethic didn't allow her to even think of breaking rules, or she would put her house-to-be in trouble. _"You would also rather be alone than betray people… let me see. I know where you will fit."_

"Oh, no!" She thought. But there wasn't any more time. The hat already shouted the house where Lily had been sorted.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Lily took the hat off and stared at the Great Hall. She noticed everyone could see her exasperated look, but her eyes went straight to Hector. He had his mouth open. Lily felt her eyes burn, but managed to swallow her feelings.

She stumbled through the Great Hall until the table at the right where people clapped. Lily managed to fake a smile and sat down between the girl called Susan Bones and an older boy who seemed to feel her sadness.

"Don't be sad that you are in Hufflepuff." He said. "We might not be as famous as the Gryffindors, but we are also the house with less tendency to become dark wizards. Did you know, Newt Scarmander was a Hufflepuff."

"Oh, I know! Hufflepuff was my mother's house." Smiled Lily, wiping a tear off her eye. "It's just that my best friend was just sorted into Ravenclaw."

"Oh. Well, friendship between houses is very encouraged in Hogwarts. And I'm sure you will find very good friends in Hufflepuff. By the way, I'm Cedric Diggory. I'm in third year."

"Pleasure to meet you. I'm Lily Boyd." They shook hands and she smiled. Perhaps… just perhaps, she could adapt to this new house.

"Hello." Said the girl next to her. She had been sorted into Hufflepuff just before her. "I'm Susan Bones." The girl smiled and her brown eyes looked at her very kindly. Lily introduced herself and the girls engaged in a conversation about the Fat Friar. Both the girls thought the ghost was really funny.

Lily looked at the teacher's table and found Severus talking to the man in a turban. He didn't look back at her this time. She also saw the old man with silver hair and beard that she recognized as Dumbledore. He did look like the kindest man to ever walk on earth.

Then McGonagall called Harry Potter's name. The boy walked at the stool and sat with the hat covering his head and eyes. It took a little longer than to the other children, but then shouted.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Gryffindor's table seemed to be about to explode in cheering and clapping. The twins, Lily's cousins, yelled "We got Potter! We got Potter!" A ghost patted Harry's shoulders.

A few names afterwards, there was Ron. A small part of Lily wished he came to her house. A bigger part of her heart wished him to be sorted into Gryffindor, since it would please her cousin more. But it would be really nice to have family with her in Hufflepuff. Either way, as soon as the hat touched Ron's head, it shouted "GRYFFINDOR!"

She could see her cousin collapsing on the chair beside Harry's. Lily couldn't help but clap along with the Gryffindor's table.

"What is it?" Asked Susan Bones beside her.

"That's my cousin. He wanted to be in Gryffindor more than anything. All his brothers are Gryffindors." She said.

"Oh, congratulations to him, then!"

"What about you? Any family in Hogwarts?"

"Oh, no. Most of my family was… Well, they opposed to You Know Who." Said Susan.

"I'm sorry." Lily wanted to hide under the table, or simply disappear. She took a look at Ravenclaw's table and crossed eyes with Hector, who seemed uncomfortable.

After that, another girl was sorted into Slytherin and then McGonagall curled back the scroll and took away the stool and the Sorting Hat. Then, Albus Dumbledore stood up and opened his arms wide.

"Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! "Thank you!"

"Ahm… Cedric?" Lily called the boy beside her. "Is he… a little bit mad, perhaps?"

"I believe everyone who is truly good at what they do is a little bit mad, yes." Cedric laughed. "You will grow to like him."

"I'm sure I will. He looks like someone who enjoys a good joke."

The conversation died for a moment when Lily looked down to see all the food on the plates. It had come out of nowhere. Roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs. Whoever had planned that dinner was sure not very worried about balanced meals. Anyway, she forgot all of that once she started to eat. It was delicious. Perhaps the most delicious meal she had ever had in her life, and it meant a lot since her mother was very good at cooking.

"So, are you a muggleborn?" Susan Bones was very direct.

"No. My mother is a witch. And my father was a muggle… but he never knew my mother was a witch."

"Oh." Susan was sensitive enough to don't ask where did the "was" part come from. "So you lived as a muggle, anyway."

"Yes. It was a huge surprise for my mom when me and Hector got the letters on the same night."

"The same night? It's usually around our birthdays."

"Well, it did come a little too late for both of us. But we share birthdays anyway." Said Lily.

"Well, my mother is a witch and my father is a muggle too." Said Susan calmly. "But I was raised as witch all my life, since my mother is very proud of our family's participation in the war."

"Oh." Commented Lily. She got a little bit ashamed of telling her that her mother had fled from the war.

"A ginger in Hufflepuff? Oh my, I thought all of them went to Gryffindor!" The Fat Friar laughed merrily. So did Lily.

"I'm their cousin!" She said. "But my mother was in Hufflepuff!"

"Oh, your mother, yes? Let's think… who was the last ginger before you?" The Friar looked across the table to a ginger girl sitting at the other side of the table. "Don't be offended, young lady. But our first year here has a very characteristic flaming red hair." The other girl giggled. "Oh, yes! Violet Prewett, I recall! Sweet little girl that was."

"That's my mother!"

"Then I see you got her best traits!" Not that Lily had met too many ghosts, but the Fat Friar was by far the kindest one. "What about you, my dear?" He asked facing the blonde with pigtails. "Who are you?"

But Hannah Abbott never got the chance to answer, because Albus Dumbledore began talking again.

"Just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember this as well." Lily couldn't be sure, but she felt like he was directly speaking to Fred and George, the twins.

The headmaster also told them that the caretaker, Mr. Filch, had asked him to remind the students that magic shouldn't be used between classes in the corridors.

"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third floor corridor on the right-hand is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

"Is that a joke?" Lily asked to Cedric Diggory when only a few people laughed. He shook his head.

Finally, they sang the school song. There were lyrics, but everyone just picked their favorite tunes, so each student finished at a different time. The last ones were the Weasley twins who were singing a slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducted them with his wand and clapped the loudest when they finished.

"Ah, music." He wiped his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now bedtime. Off you trot!"

The Hufflepuffs raised from their table and followed their prefect, Gabriel Truman. Lily didn't have time enough to find Hector in the middle of the crowded hall and simply shouted "GOOD NIGHT, Hector!" but she wasn't sure he had listened.

They followed Gabriel down through the staircases and then finally arrived at what seemed to be one floor under the ground and, judging by the smell, it was close to the kitchens. Gabriel made them stop in front of a stack of barrels.

"Alright, now, this is very important. Our common room is the only one in Hogwarts with repelling device. Also, the only one to remain unseen by outsiders. When you come in, you must tap the barrel two from the bottom, middle of the second row, in the rhythm of Helga Hufflepuff. Do it wrong and the barrels will spill vinegar all over you."

Lily and Susan looked at each other, worried.

"A friend of mine made this mistake once. She smelled vinegar for a week." Said Cedric Diggory.

Truman showed them the correct way to do it and a passageway opened. Lily was one of the last ones to crawl through it and, when she finally got up, she found herself standing in the cosiest room she had ever been. It was round, low-ceilinged, earthy and somehow it felt sunny. Its circular windows had a view to the outside world. There was a lot of burnished copper about the place, and many plants, which either hang from the ceiling or sit on the windowsills. One cactus was actually talking and complaining that his spines ached. Some cacti danced on round shelves.

The overstuffed sofas and chairs were upholstered in yellow and black. Copper lamps castered a warm light over the four Hufflepuff posters on the walls.

"Through the round doors to your dormitories. Girls to the left and boys to the right." Said Gabriel.

Lily barely realized that her trunk was there when she dropped on a bed near a window and fell asleep, not even bothering to change into her Pyjamas.


	8. Chapter 8

**Masters of Hogwarts**

It took Lily a few minutes to understand where she was when she woke up next mourning. The next thing she realized was that she was a little bit late and she had classes to go. Once more not bothering to get changed into different robes, since those were still clean, she ran outside, being greeted by Susan, who was talking to Hannah Abbott and a blond boy.

"Good mourning!" She greeted.

"Hello, Susan!"

"Hey, Boyd… Is it true that you know Potter?" Asked the blond boy. Lily's reaction was immediate, she didn't like him. What sort of intimacy did he think they had to ask her stuff like that? What did that boy have to do with Harry Potter.

"I sat with him on the train." She said before crossing through the passageway to the corridor outside. Luckily, she soon recognized something that could lead her to Hector. His orange tabby cat, Plushy. "Oh, hello, Plushy. Can you take me to Hector?"

The cat rubbed his head on her legs and then moved, looking back at Lily periodically. She had forgotten how to get to the Great Hall. It took a moment for her to finally see Hector. They hugged. It had been a while since they spent the night apart and having no idea how to get to each other.

"Good mourning." She said, smiling. "How was your night?"

"Good. The beds are really comfortable and there are lots of books. On the common room I mean."

"Oh, my common room is full of plants and it's so cosy! There is a talking cactus! Some of them even dance!"

"Wow!" He said. "Hey, Lily, do you think we can sit together for breakfast?"

"Lets try and see." She said, grabbing a cup of hot chocolate and toasts to sit with him at the Ravenclaws table.

They talked about the common rooms and dormitories and about the classmates. Apparently, Penelope Clearwater was a very severe girl as a prefect. She had taken 10 points from Ravenclaw already when a eleven year old girl woke up everyone because of a nightmare. They also agreed that they would have to find a way to talk from their bedrooms.

Then, all of a sudden, the great hall darkened with a cloud of wings and beaks and owls landed on the tables, carrying pieces of parchment tied to their legs to give to the addressed. Helga, the barn owl, also landed on the table and faced Lily.

"Well, I did tell mom that I would write when we arrived… it seems that I forgot it." She took a piece of parchment and a quill in her bag and quickly wrote a note to Violet.

"Can you ask her to tell my mom too?" Hector said and Lily handed the parchment to him so he would get to write whatever he wanted. Helga stood still when they tied the letter to her leg and then flew off the window. "Ahm… Lily, what's your first class?"

It was Defence Against the Dark Arts, with professor Quirrell. Hector' first lesson was Charms, with professor Flitwick.

Gabriel, the Hufflepuff's prefect, wasn't too happy about Lily's relationship with Hector.

"Well, if I'm not just and loyal, then I am not a true Hufflepuff, am I? Hector is my friend, he has always been my friend and he has nothing to do with your issues towards other houses." Lily snapped when he confronted her in her way to Defence Against Dark Arts lesson.

"Ravenclaws assume all great wizards were from their house." He said. "Besides, you should make friends in your own house." Then he left to his Divination lesson. She was already annoyed by at least two persons in her house.

"Don't mind him." Said a voice from behind her. It was the Fat Friar, the Hufflepuff's ghost. "He dueled a Ravenclaw prefect once when he was on third year. He is a little bittered towards Ravenclaw."

"Would you help me get to my Defence Against Dark Arts class?"

"Of course, my dear, of course!" The friar offered his arm. Of course he wouldn't actually touch her, only make her feel awkwardly cold, but still Lily pretended to hold his arm and they followed through the halls and staircases. An odd ghost started laughing and tried to throw ink at Lily. "Oh, Peeves, have some respect for the young ones, will you?"

"Who is that?"

"Peeves. The Poltergeist." The Fat Friar answered. He finally dropped her at the classroom door. "Have a very good class, my dear, and pay attention to your teacher." Lily smiled at the Friar and walked into the classroom.

Professor Quirrell was an intelligent man, Lily could tell, but he stuttered to the point it was hard to understand and it made his lessons become a bit of a joke, even when they were on how to cure werewolf bites. Also his classroom smelled like garlic. And his turban, given him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, smelled like a dead rat. Fred and George later told her it was also garlic, that he wore it to keep safe from a vampire he had met once in Romania. Clearly she would have to stick to the books in order to study that subject… or ask other teachers. Either way, she didn't pay attention to professor Quirrell.

Lily got fairly good at Herbology just by talking with the cacti and observing the plants in Hufflepuff common room, just as the other students from her house. There was a Gryffindor very good at it, probably the best in class, Neville Longbottom. Some students said it was the only subject he was good at and Lily did try to ask sometimes, but he simply wouldn't answer. Judging by the way he held a wand, perhaps the rumours were right.

Hector couldn't be more excited about the History of Magic lesson, but he surely was the only one in school. Professor Binns, the History of Magic master, was a very boring teacher. He spoke so slowly, never changing his voice, that it felt like sleeping pills to the brain. Professor Binns was the only ghost teacher in Hogwarts. Cedric told Lily that he had taught all his life and, when he was very old, he fell asleep on his chair to wake up the next day and go to his class, not realizing he had left his body behind. Lily admired him, even though she didn't like the lessons. Few people were so in love with their own carrier to the point of not letting death get in the way.

As for Astronomy, professor Sinistra was a fascinating woman, but the midnight classes that would be held every wednesday didn't help Lily since she was more of a day person and got terribly sleepy on the first day. On the next afternoon, while trying to do her work at the library before dinner time, she realized Hermione Granger was very useful, since she was a perfect know-it-all and spent most of her time at the library and, especially, because she loved being able to answer Lily's questions. The girl would be quite nice if she would just let go of the books for a moment and looked around.

However, Lily looked forwards to one specific lesson: Potions.

"You won't like him, Lily, I'm telling you." Said Hector during lunch before her first lesson, on thursday "he is a mean figure, oh he is. Always favouring his own house, giving points to Slytherin."

"He is bitter, Hector."

"What do you mean? Bitter?" The boy had a hot-chocolate moustache.

"I feel something is really wrong with him."

"Oh, you bet." He answered cynically.

"Well, it doesn't change the fact that I am having Potions on the fourth period every thursday from today on." She replied. "Besides, you know I have always liked to cook."

Lily had grown a great admiration towards professor Snape, often following him around even before her first lesson with him, asking questions about the subject. At the first four days of her first week in Hogwarts, he took two points from Hufflepuff to each time she knocked on the door to his office. It never stopped her, although Hannah Abbott and Ernie McMillan kept telling her to give up before she would end up losing all of Hufflepuff's points. Once, when Lily dared to tell him he was being terribly unfair to the other houses by always favouring Slytherin, Snape simply gave her detention. He didn't get any points from her, but she would have to clean his office without magic, with the date still to be arranged. On that day, Lily headed back to the common room with tears in her eyes and went straight to bed. Still, she didn't give up on earning professor Snape's trust.

"Good afternoon, professor Snape." She greeted him with a smile when she entered his classroom on that afternoon. Lily was the first student to arrive.

Professor Snape was standing in front of the class, wearing a very cold face. However, for the first time in the week, he greeted her back.

"Good afternoon, Boyd." He said while Lily took her seat at the front and got a parchment and a quill. There was no smile, but it was unusual to him to greet anyone at all, so that was an improvement.

The other Hufflepuffs arrived soon and took seats as close to the door as they could, except for Susan Bones, who sat next to Lily.

"Thanks" The ginger girl whispered.

"You're welcome. I always wanted to learn potions, anyway." Said Susan.

"Quiet." Said Snape. Then he went through with taking the call. When he finally finished, he started talking.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potionmaking." It was barely more than a whisper, but the mere sound of his voice somehow managed to keep the whole classroom silent to listen. It was easy to catch every word of what he said. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect many of you to truly understand the beauty of brewing a potion, but for those who do, I can teach you everything. There is no such thing that can't be done with a potion." He stepped through the room, very slowly, looking at every student deep in the eye with his freezing gaze.

"Now, for me to know where to start from, I will apply a quiz on basic potionmaking. For those who troubled themselves to read the books before coming, this shall be easy. For those who didn't, there is no way to solve it. For those who did read the books and still are unable to come up with the answers… well… I don't think there's a potion to cure ignorance." with a wave of his wand, a pile of parchments floated from the teacher's desk to the pupil's seats, handing itselves, one for each student.

Lily had been giving her best to understand everything she could about potion brewing, and the quiz wasn't a challenge to her, but she could see Susan struggling to get the right answers and made sure to write a note on her own hand to remind herself of helping the girl on the subject. There were all sorts of questions, from what were the use of some ingredients to what was the use to a few simple potions.

"Well, well, well." Said Snape in a tone of disapproval. "I didn't expect that all of you would have completely ignored the existence of the books. Of all people here, only one got full marks. If this would add to your final grade, you would be doomed. I should add… let's see… ten points to Ms. Boyd, one for each question answered correctly. You shall not expect to gain any points from my subject, however. I despise the use of points to persuade ignorant people to pay attention to a subject they don't deserve to understand."

Lily gave him smile after getting the points, and it widened when she calculated that, before the classes started, that was the exact amount of points Snape had taken from her. Was that an unusual way to make peace?

"Class dismissed." He whispered and everyone raised from their seats to leave. "Boyd, stay behind so we can arrange the date for that detention." Snape sat at his desk and wrote something down..

The smile disappeared from her lips as she waved bye-bye to Susan, promising to help her later. Lily stood at the front of Snape's desk, waiting for him to speak.

"Professor?" She asked.

"Alright. I have the date arranged, at last. First November, before dinner, that's usually when things start to get a little bit too dirty." He handed the parchment with the date and time. "Keep the good results on the tests."

"Thank you, professor." She whispered and kept the note in her bag. Lily didn't expect to still get detention after getting full marks at the test. Her eyes were a little bit teary again.

"Don't expect me to be your friend, Lily, and in exchange I won't expect you to be any different from a true Hufflepuff, like your mother."

"Yes, professor, I'm sorry." she did notice that he had used her first name, though. "I'll be there on November, the first." Lily turned to leave, raising her hand to the eyes to wipe them with the cloth of her sleeves.

"And Lily…" she turned again at the sound of Snape's voice. "Don't you ever question my ways of teaching again. Or you might re-lose all the points you have just gained."

She smiled again, confirming it was no mistake: Snape truly had given all those points out of understanding he had been unfair. Then she left to meet Hector at the courtyard.

"How was it?" he asked.

"Amazing!" she smiled. "I'm looking forwards to understand potions."

"I like History of magic better."

"Well, if you like a ghost as a teacher, then there's nothing wrong with me liking a..."

"An overgrown bat." Hector looked very serious about his thoughts on Snape. Lily couldn't get a grip of herself. She fell to the floor, laughing.

"Well, I can't disagree."

Later on that evening, by dinner time, she had a really hard time with Megan Jones. She wouldn't leave her alone because of her behaviour at potions class.

"If you are not careful, Boyd, you might be transferred to Slytherin."

"Well, at least I got all Hufflepuff's points back."

"By selling yourself to Snape."

"No, just by studying and being acceptant towards whoever it is. Like Helga Hufflepuff taught her students." Snapped Lily. Few things would drive her mad, but hating someone with no actual reason was one of them.

"And besides, Lily is our only chance to be top of the class in Potions." Susan supported her. Megan turned away to talk to another Hufflepuff.

"Well, I've never been popular at my old school, but I didn't expected to be hated by my own house before the end of the first week." Muttered Lily.

"Don't worry about them. They'll see. You are a good student and they are jealous that you got full marks, that's all." Susan smiled at her.

At that moment, Lily understood she had a true friend in Susan. Perhaps she wouldn't feel lonely in her common room anymore, even though it was hard to stay without Hector.


	9. Chapter 9

**First Flight**

Poor Neville Longbottom looked pale since the day before, when the Gryffindors and the Slytherins had had their first flying lesson and he somehow lost control of his broomstick and ended up with a broken arm. It was very lucky that the nurse, madam Pomfrey, was an expert on fixing bones.

But the story didn't end there. After that, Draco Malfoy had grabbed the remembrall Neville had got from his grandmother during breakfast and flew away with it, daring Harry Potter to go and take it back. Harry did and when Malfoy threw the remembrall away towards the castle, he had caught it in midair. Then, Minerva McGonagall, head of Gryffindor, came through the castle door and told Harry to follow her. When everyone was ready to say goodbye to Potter, he came back as part of quidditch team. Of course nobody knew it. And, thankfully, Lily was part of the people included in the small group that was supposed to be nobody.

By the breakfast of thirteen september, everyone already knew about the fact that Harry Potter was Gryffindor's new seeker. That was why, on that mourning, Lily sat with the Weasleys at the breakfast. Harry was only eleven years old and first years were usually forbidden to take part on the quidditch teams, but McGonagall had been able to personally place him in it.

"So, Harry, when are the practices starting?" Asked Lily.

"I don't know. Don't say it so loud."

"Let me know, I would love to watch it. I never watched quidditch and… I'm intending to get in Hufflepuff team next year."

"On what position?" Asked Fred… or was that George?

"You do have the body of a seeker. Or maybe… maybe a beater, like us!" Said George. That was certainly George, she could tell. "I can't believe you didn't come to Gryffindor with us! You must be the first Weasley to not be in Gryffindor!"

"Yes, but my mom was a Hufflepuff too. And she's your mom's sister, you should know."

"They didn't talk much about aunt Violet. Everyone thought she was dead or something, after running away." Said Ron.

"Well, she was a Hufflepuff. Anyway, you should teach me how to play quidditch properly on summer break. I do want to be either a beater or a seeker."

"We can teach you!" The twins said at the same time. "If you spend part of summer break with us!" Lily grinned and nodded at them. She would love it. Ever since her father had died, Lily had been longing to feel part of a family, even though she never voiced this feeling. She occasionally thought about it, wondering why she felt lonely sometimes.

"That would be lovely."

"For now, I'll give you a tip about the broomsticks for today's class. Don't rationalize it. Feel it." Said George. Was that really George?

Lily swallowed dry. How was she supposed to feel instructions? It made no sense at all, but something told her it was supposed to be like that. She was supposed to feel the flying instead of following instructions. Maybe it was somehow like riding a bike, maybe it would simply happen when she was ready.

Truth was Lily had never truly learned how to ride the bike. Her father had tried to teach her, and technically she could do it, but she would lose control easily. Or get tired really fast. Or simply get bored. But broomsticks didn't sound boring at all. Nor did they look like one had to make true effort to ride. And especially didn't look like something someone could afford to lose control and perhaps the pressure would be something on her favor.

The first flying lesson would be just after breakfast, previous to the potions lesson. There would be occasional flying lessons throughout the year and Hufflepuff would finally share some time with Ravenclaw, even though the two houses were usually rivals. Lily and Hector had to try really hard to ignore their housemates' comments about their friendship in the past two weeks. In fact, it was already getting painfully hard, especially for Lily since it wasn't the only disagreement she had with her classmates. Her admiration towards professor Snape was a source of great displeasure to both her house and Hector.

"Lily, are you ready?" Hector arrived at Gryffindor table with an annoyed look.

The Ravenclaws nearly didn't share any period with the Hufflepuffs, except for the Flying lessons. So Hector and Lily only had time together between the last class of the day and the curfew. It truly annoyed both of them and they constantly spent time planning on ways to communicate through the common rooms. The best way they could find was, of course, was through Helga, but the owl was always too busy taking letters to Edinburgh and they had to write to each other at night by tying a piece of parchment to Plushy's neck.

"Yes, I'll be going in a minute." She said, finishing her hot chocolate as fast as she could to join Hector in his way outside. It was comfortably warm and sunny outside, so the idea of flying sounded perfect to Lily. "Aren't you happy we are learning to fly?"

"Not really. I don't really like heights."

"Really? I didn't know that. I don't think you ever mentioned." Lily truly didn't recall any time Hector had said he didn't like heights. He didn't seem annoyed when they went to the Edinburgh castle towers with Lily's father.

"Well… One thing is being up a solid place… But a broomstick..."

"Don't worry, I don't think madam Hooch will ask us to go too high." She laughed. He didn't.

"Tell that to the Longbottom boy."

"Oh, Ron reckons every sort of thing happens to Neville. I don't think anything like that will be happening again." Lily poked his cheek with her index finger. Hector didn't really smile at this, instead he pushed her hand. "What's wrong?"

"It's just that… you wouldn't understand anyway." He said in a low voice, looking down.

"What are you talking about? You know you can tell me everything."

"It's ok..." He muttered something else, but Lily didn't understand. He was clearly miserable, for some reason.

The Ravenclaws were already there and the Hufflepuffs were coming through the door, a few meters behind Hector and Lily. About twenty broomsticks were lying on the grass. Madam Hooch was already there. She was an old lady, with grey hair and yellow cat-like eyes, who seemed a little angry about everything.

"What are you waiting for? Stand beside one broom and speak 'up', until the broom goes up to your hand."

Lily and Hector stood near each other, placed one hand over their brooms and started repeating "Up, up, up."

Lily's broom didn't take too long to jump to her hand. She had remembered the thing about feeling the broomsticks instead of rationalizing the instructions. As for Hector, it didn't matter how he thought about it, he would hardly understand the feeling-over-thinking idea. He was obsessive about rationalizing things, which was the thing that worried Lily the most about his behaviour earlier. The boy would hardly ever allow himself to act that way and would always try and put his feelings into words. Just opposite to Lily, who would always feel her way into or out of everything.

It took Hector five minutes to get the broom to jump to his hand. But he wasn't the last one to do it. In fact, he was among the first ones. Susan also managed to do it fast enough. Padma Patil, who had a twin sister in Gryffindor, was having a true issue. The broomstick seemed to shake on the grass, but never went up.

Over twenty minutes later, everyone finally managed to get their broomsticks.

"Now, I want you to climb the brooms and, at the sound of my whistle, you will jump from the ground, go up just a few feet, and then come back down at the sound of my whistle." She said. "Three… Two… One." And she blew the whistle.

Lily calmly jumped. And so did Hector. And Susan. And all the twenty children were suddenly about six feet in the air, floating on the brooms. Padma Patil seemed to have some trouble with balance, and so did half of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. Hector was very firm on his broom, but he seemed to be holding onto it so hard, his hands simply had to be hurting. As for Lily, the twin's advice couldn't make more sense than when she was actually flying. It was about feeling it. She could feel the air around her, she could feel the slight movements of the broom. And she could control it perfectly. She even tried to move around, leaning from side to side, flying the broom to whatever side and angle she wanted.

"Look, Hector!" she yelled, doing a pirouette in midair. "We're flying!"

"Y-yes, we are… " he answered, looking down in panic. "Well, you are! I'm just trying not to fall." he nearly lost his balance, but Lily didn't quite apprehend what was going on around her at the moment.

"Don't worry, Hector! You can't get any lower than the ground if you fall." she yelled, doing yet another pirouette.

"E-easy for you to talk!"

"Relax, Hector!"

And then madam Hooch blew her whistle once again, and then all the students got down to the ground again.

"Well, very good for a first time. You all managed to get your brooms and get them to the air. And five points to Boyd for your maneuvers!" She cheered, her yellow eyes sparkling. Lily smiled from ear to ear, as happy as she could be. She wanted to be able to fly more than anything ever since her mother had told about flying and broomsticks.

"Well, well, look at the time. Class dismissed!" Said madam Hooch. And everyone left to the great hall for lunch time.

"Did you see it, Hector? I made it! And I even got five points to Hufflepuff!"

"Oh, yeah, yeah, great." She had never heard him being so cynical in her entire life. "Look, I'll be going to library to finish my potions essay, you know? I mean, if you even know how to do them, since you are all friends with Snape now!"

"You too?!" Lily shouted. "I'm not _friends_ with anyone, I'm just interested on potions!"

"Oh, yes? Then explain why you are the only one outside Slytherin who managed to get points in his class? Tell me why you keep following him. Tell me why you like so much a terrible person who bullies everyone. Tell me why you never talk to me, but still find time to go to his office, get detention and lose points and still be happy about it!" He was yelling very loud and speaking very fast.

"I don't care what you think about what I do, but I am using all my time to study and understand things properly! I'm sorry if you are jealous." Something was burning inside Lily. Whatever it was, it was also in Hector' eyes.

"I'm not! In fact, I- I don't want to be near you!" The boy pushed her.

"Fine, I don't want to be near you either!" She pushed back. And Hector walked away to the library.

Resolved that she would not regret whatever she had said, Lily left to the great hall for lunch. She would have potions lesson just afterwards, and Snape was a good teacher, but it was really hard to catch the content of his lessons if one wasn't fully focused on it. She sat beside Susan to eat, half blinded by tears, but she held them back as she swallowed the food and the juice in the goblet.

"Do you think we'll be able to finish that potion we started last week?" Asked Susan. Their cure-for-boils potion did look way more blue than it should, according to the book.

"I suppose we will. I think we didn't add enough ginger, that's all." Lily poked the food with her fork.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes, yes. Just an argue with Hector." She replied in a low voice, with her bottom lip shaking. "He's being an idiot today."

"Don't worry. He's angry that you've been doing better on potions and flying." Said Cedric, who was sitting across the table with two other friends. "I heard you did really good today, Lily. We'll be happy to have you in Hufflepuff team next year."

"Oh, she did great! She's a natural! You had to see it, Cedric, she even did some pirouettes!" Susan squealed. "I heard Hufflepuff hasn't been doing too well on the last cups… "

"Indeed. We do need to renew our team. Most of the players are about to graduate." Said a girl on fourth year, sitting two meters from Lily and Susan. "And it wouldn't be bad if we got one or two natural talents in it."

"If we are lucky, we can even manage to get you in the team this year. I mean, no one never did on first year, but..." Said Jeanne Kenyon, the Hufflepuff seeker.

"She would need to do even better than Potter yesterday to stand a chance on quidditch team as a first year. Just imagine her, this size, playing against the Slytherins. We would have to send whatever's left of her to hospital wing in a match box." Replied Cedric, trying to swallow a chunk of meat a little too big for his mouth.

"Lily was amazing. She was the only one doing maneuvers in first class." Insisted Susan, now completely uninterested on the remaining food on her plate.

"It's different. I showed natural skills on broom. I would have to be perfect for some position to make my way into a team.."

"Well… Not that we couldn't ask to put her in the team. But without professor Sprout's permission, there's no way we could do it, even if just as a substitute. Well, we would hardly be able to fit you as anything but a substitute since nobody would give up on their position." Poundered Jeanne Kenyon, with her eyes fixed on the teachers' table at the end of the hall. "I'll talk to professor Sprout and ask her if we are allowed to start training Lily as a future player." He moved to talk to the head of Hufflepuff, just as Susan pulled Lily, reckoning they were late for class.

The girls ran through the halls, trying to avoid the corridor where Peeves the poltergeist was singing and throwing chairs against the wall. Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat, who also seemed to be his extended-self, was meowing at him. Lily also caught a glimpse of Hector walking into a classroom along with Padma Patil.

They finally reached Snape's classroom and walked in. Everyone was already inside, including Snape. The man, who did look like an overgrown bat, checked his watch.

"You are five minutes late. What's your excuse?"

"Sorry, professor, we lost track of time during lunchtime." said Lily.

"Oh, yes. I bet you all lost your heads at the flying lessons. As idiots as first years usually are, they always think flying on cleaning supplies probably sounds way more interesting than potions that might as well save one's life." Snape talked in a mocking, sarcastic, low voice. "Two points from Hufflepuff, one from each. Now go to your seats."

Lily and Susan walked to the front seats, their heads as low as heads can be without falling from their necks. Both girls got their hair well tied behind their heads, even though the elastic holding Lily's bun seemed about to explode under the weight of all her curls.

Hannah Abbott and Ernie McMillan stared at them with judgmental eyes as Susan chopped ginger and Lily added the last snake fang and their potion reached the proper shade of blue.

"Did we put the right amount of everything?" asked Susan, taking her bangs back with a hair pin.

"Yes, I wrote everything down. Do you think they look similar?" Lily put the book illustration right beside their caldron.

"I believe you two have it ready. It's not too bad." Snape's low voice sent chills over the two girls' spines. He got a color chart with shades of blue from one pocket and compared to their potion. "Right shade of blue." Then he smelled it with his long hooked nose. "And the right smell. Doesn't look like it might poison anyone… Different from this one." He finished, looking back at Oliver River's potion, which was smoking and had a poisonous shade of green. "River, if you ever do anything remotely similar to that again, I'll make you feed it to your cat."

Lily was fully conscious that Snape wasn't a good example of how a teacher should act. She did hate how he talked to students, how he bullied Ron and how he favoured Slytherin. But something inside her told her to stick to him, even if she would keep a foot behind her. As he had said, she wouldn't expect him to be her friend, as he wouldn't expect her to be anything but a Hufflepuff. And being a Hufflepuff meant she should be devoted to help anyone. And Lily knew Snape needed help, so she wouldn't give up on trying to get on his good side.

The whole process took her about a month, but after all, Snape started to take interest in Lily, even though he didn't show anything behind his dead voice and sparkly dark eyes. But he no longer took any points from her, and even let her sit with him in his office and ask questions about what he was reading on his books about potions and defence against dark arts. His eyes sparkled a bit more when she asked about the last subject, which Lily did on purpose after she learned that his dream was being D.A.D.A teacher. He was never kind to her, though, nor let her get into his head by asking personal questions, but she could still feel he had grown fond of her.


	10. Chapter 10

**Detention With Professor Snape**

Hector was definitely not talking to Lily anymore. She realized that when the owl he received from his mother wasn't Helga. They had had other fights after the first one, each worse than the previous, until the point where they wouldn't even greet each other in the hallways. Lily refused to apologise before he would, and Hector seemed to act in the same way. Gabriel Truman, the Hufflepuff prefect, kept telling Lily it was for the best, since Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were rivals.

"Boyd!" Shouted Jeanne Kenyon one morning, at breakfast, when Lily sat with the Weasley twins, who seemed to love having a new girl cousin to play with. Lily jumped at her seat and turned to Jeanne.

"Yes?"

"Come here. I have to talk to you."

The twins said something that sounded like "See you later" as Lily left the table to meet the Hufflepuff seeker. He looked somewhat happy about something. Jeanne pulled Lily into the little chamber outside the great hall where the first years had waited for the sorting ceremony. Jeanne was a short light-ginger boy, yet taller and stronger than Lily.

"Professor Sprout let us train you as our choice for next year beater. She won't send you a Nimbus 2000 like Harry's, but that's because you are not yet in the team."

"REALLY?" Squealed Lily, smiling from ear to ear. She had a granted position on the quidditch team! As a beater, like her cousins! Who cared if she didn't have a broom? Who cared if she was short and skinny, instead of tall and strong like an athlete? She was fast and agile and acted fast.

"As long as you stick to the school rules and keep your grades high. Which means…"

"Oh, don't start that thing about Snape. I'm doing great at potions and I'm not losing any more points."

"Yes, but you already got one detention for first November." Jeanne had a severe look upon his face.

"I won't get another any time soon." Lily replied with an equally serious look. "You have my word."

Jeanne raised one eyebrow and stared into her eyes for a moment and then said, in a very low yet clear voice.

"I want you to keep it a secret, at least until the end of first semester. Not even your family can know."

"Don't worry, I won't say a word." She promised.

"Alright. You will start joining the practices after christmas break, then."

Lily nodded vigorously and Jeanne let her go back to having breakfast with her cousins. Right then, Hector walked into the hall along with Padma Patil and Michal Corner. His eyes crossed with Lily's and then both of them looked away. Lily angrily wiped tears from her eyes and swallowed the knot in her throat.

"Are you alright, Lily? We can teach him a lesson if you want. Put a spell on his books so they'll bite his nose." Asked George. Lily laughed at the idea, but declined. She didn't hate Hector, they were simply angry at each other and not speaking. "Are you sure? We could buy something on our Hogsmeade weekend."

"No, seriously. I don't want to make this any worse than it already is."

"What did Kenyon tell you?" Asked Fred, changing subjects all of a sudden.

"Nothing much." She lied and then vaguely said "Oh, look at the time! I said I would meet Susan outside to study transfiguration." Then she left, ignoring her cousin's protests about being saturday.

Lily loved transfiguration, but she was still unable to do more than turn a match into a needle. Susan was much better than her at that subject, and she had managed to get mice from the kitchen so they could practice turning them into snuff boxes.

"Alright, so all you have to do is concentrate and focus on the wand movement. It helps me to keep thinking of my mother's snuff box."

Lily silently nodded and stared at the white mices inside a little box and took a deep breath. She held her wand and pointed it to one of the little animals. Inside her head, her brain was trying hard to picture a snuff box she had seen in exhibition in a store once. It was gold and pocket size.

"Say the spell, very loud and clearly." Instructed Susan. Lily did as she told.

It was golden. And looked slightly more square than a mouse. But it had legs and whiskers and ears and was squeaking desperately. Susan laughed and waved her wand, turning it into a full mice again. Lily sank her chin into her hands.

"Try again." Encouraged the girl, releasing her bangs from a pin.

The next box looked a little bit more like a box, but was still furry and had ears. At least it didn't move or make sounds.

Eventually, Seamus Finnigan, a Gryffindor, joined the girls and tried to turn a mice into a teacup himself, but after he nearly set the mouse on fire, Susan made him stop trying on living animals and gave him a leaf to transfigure into something else instead. He later exploded the leaf.

After a few hours, she was starting to make some real progress with the snuff boxes and they didn't show more than whiskers as a proof that they had once been living animals. Susan helped turning the boxes back to mice and they fled, running through the school grounds to hide between the dandelions. It must be a great trauma for a mouse to be transfigured into a snuff box over ten times in the same day.

Seamus was still with them and made a few comments about Harry Potter being in the house team as their seeker. Someone had let it slip that he was in the team. He seemed excited for having a celebrity in his house and especially in his team. They walked back into the great hall, where Hagrid, the hairy giant, was placing giant carved pumpkins for halloween decoration. Hector was still sitting there, watching Hagrid, alone. Lily had the impulse of going to talk to him, but gave up and walked away.

On Halloween morning, a week later, the Hufflepuffs woke up to the amazing smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors, particularly strong at their common room and it's whereabouts due to how close they were to the kitchens.

Lily would have Defence Against the Dark Arts and then Transfiguration lesson.

D.A.D.A was very boring, as usual. There was nothing besides the book content. Professor Quirrell didn't seem to enjoy teaching, just as much as the students didn't enjoy learning that subject, and although Lily got eight out of ten in her essay about Doxies, she didn't take any interest at all.

Then there was Transfiguration. McGonagall put the class into pairs and Lily and Susan were working together as usual. The teacher gave them a box with two mice, one to each, which they were supposed to transfigure into snuff boxes again.

"Remember what I taught you the other day. You can do it, Lily." Whispered Susan.

Lily cleared her mind of whatever other thought and then pictured the gold snuff box she had seen. She imagined it's size and ornaments and how much it should weight and then put all her brain effort into the spell. Looking from outside, Susan could nearly see smoke coming from Lily's flaming red curls.

Lily moved her wand, speaking the spell as loud and clear as she could.

And there it was, right in front of her. A small, golden, perfect snuff box.

"Perfect!" Yelled Susan, widening her eyes. "I said you could do it, Lily! Congratulations!"

"I wouldn't be able if it weren't for you!" Lily smiled at her friend.

"Well, five points to Hufflepuff for good teamwork!" McGonagall had a tiny smile on her face. "Very good, Ms. Boyd, for a moment I thought you wouldn't be able to do it.

When the class was dismissed, Lily felt wonderful, as if she could start dancing around the castle.

Susan had to go to the toilet and Lily decided it was a good idea to come along, since she had drank a little too much hot chocolate for breakfast. They just didn't expect to hear whimpering inside one of the cabins. It was Hermione Granger.

"Hermione? Are you alright?" Asked Susan, knocking on the door.

"Y-yess…"

"Are you sure? Did someone say something?" Insisted Lily. She knew perfectly that Ron was angry at Hermione and that he could be a little bit mean sometimes when he was angry, especially when talking about someone behind their backs. "Was it Ron?"

"Y-yes." Answered Hermione, miserably. "He said I don't have friends, that I'm a nightmare and no one can stand me."

It wasn't a total lie. Hermione was a perfect know-it all who kept warning everyone about rules and rule breaking and about what she had just read in old books from the library. Lately, she had reminded Lily of Hector, and that wasn't a very good thing at the moment. Yet, it was cruel saying all of that. Hermione was a sweet girl, very understanding and very cooperative in every aspect, as long as one wouldn't break rules and did homework. She always helped Lily with Astronomy.

"Oh, Hermione, don't listen to him. He is just angry because he can't perform as many spells as you." Said Lily.

Hermione didn't reply. She just cried and cried and cried.

"Would you like us to stay with you?" Asked Lily very calmly.

"N-no. You two have classes. I'm alright." She said. "I'll skip this class, I think."

Lily knew it was an absurd for Hermione to even think of skipping classes. But she also knew perfectly what it felt like to have people around when she just wanted to be alone. So she got Susan's arm and pulled out of the bathroom. Susan looked at her, a little confused.

"Let's just leave her. She needs to be alone and think. That's what I wanted to do back when my father…" Then she realized. She had never told Susan that her father had died. And Susan stared at her, shocked, her mouth shaped as an O.

"Lily, I-"

"Oh. Don't worry. I'm sorry, I never told you. I just- for some reason I just assumed you knew. Probably because of Hector. Don't worry." Lily's heart sank for a moment. She couldn't talk to Hector about that subject anymore. He was the only one who would take it naturally when she talked about her father. Everyone else who learned about that seemed to expect her to start crying at any moment. And she didn't feel like crying anymore. Her way to feel sad was different.

"I… I lost most of my family as well. Killed by You-Know-Who's followers. So… don't worry. I understand." They gave each other a soft smile. Not a happy one, but the kind of smile people give each other when they are on the same team.

After the lessons were over, the girls walked to the great hall, trying not to get lost in the middle of all the students, who violently bumped onto them, more than once nearly pushing Lily to the floor. Susan seemed to be really angry at Ron, judging by the way she looked at him. Both the girls had taken a like for Hermione after a while.

They sat at the Hufflepuff table, with Cedric, who had grown to be very close to the two girls whenever he wasn't with his friends from the quidditch team. Lily looked back to stare at Hector who was sitting again with Padma Patil, seeming to laugh, though she couldn't hear it in the distance. Her heart sank. She felt fire in her stomach and nearly growled in anger. Halloween had always been a special day for them, when they would walk through the streets with sweets and bake cakes together and have loads of fun. Seeing Hector having fun with someone else was too much, she thought to herself, turning again to talk to Susan, and not realizing that, just then, Hector had turned to look at her as well.

The decoration in the great hall set her mind away from Hector for a moment. A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling. A thousand more swooped over the tables. Hagrid's carved pumpkins were floating around, beautifully lighted with candles inside.

Lily and Susan talked happily about her success on transfiguration class and, just as she had opened her mouth to make some comment about her snuff box, professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, terror on his face, bringing along that odd smell of a dead rat. Everyone turned to look at him as he reached Dumbledore's seat, slumped against the table and gasped "TROLL- IN THE DUNGEONS- thought you ought to know!"

Then he fainted.

Lily felt her lungs burning with adrenaline. Susan grabbed her hand and squeezed it. Everyone panicked as well, and they were screaming so loud it took several purple firecrackers from Dumbledore's wand to establish silence again.

"Prefects, lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately." His voice rumbled.

Gabriel Truman got up and, apparently trying to keep himself from panicking, yelled for the first years to follow him, and it took him three attempts to do it since his voice refused to leave his throat. At last, he managed to get all Hufflepuffs to follow him quietly. Susan and Lily were still holding hands, nervously. Lily had the impression of seeing Ron and Harry in the middle of the Hufflepuffs, but that couldn't be, could it?

"No need to fear the troll, follow me, don't worry, all we have to do is stay in the common room." Said Gabriel. Indeed, the reached the common room fast enough and soon all the Hufflepuffs were inside, sitting on the overstuffed sofas, all looking very tired. Lily and Susan went to the dormitories immediately,

Then, and idea snapped in Lily's brain.

"Hermione!" She yelled. "Susan, Hermione wasn't at the feast! She doesn't know! We have to do something!"

"Oh, Merlin..." started Susan.

Lily didn't think twice before jumping out of bed and running back to the common room. Her thoughts were unclear and she had absolutely no idea of what she was going to do. There was no one else in the common room, so it was easy to get to the passageway and open the door and she was about to crawl through when somebody grabbed her from behind and pulled her back. She fell to her back over someone and struggled against them so she could get off to warn Hermione.

"Let go, Susan!" she yelled, not realizing the person who held her was much larger than Susan. And therefore much larger than her, immobilizing her easily.

Lily finally got a grip of herself and stopped struggling. The person holding her got up. It was Cedric Diggory.

"Lily, you can't go outside, the troll might still be out there!"

"I don't care if there is a troll! Hermione is out there on her own! We have to do something!"

Cedric, who had just managed to stand up properly, fell back, sitting on one of the sofas. Lily looked around, not quite sure of what to do, and saw Susan standing near the boy's dormitory door. It was obvious she had her mind clearer than Lily's and had ran to call Cedric and prevent Lily, a first year, from running onto a fully grown troll on her own.

"Alright. Susan, go call Gabriel." Said Cedric, trying to catch his breath. Lily suddenly realized the situation was even more serious than she had imagined. One thing was an eleven-year-old get nervous about a troll when she had never lived with magic before arriving at Hogwarts. Watching Cedric, an older boy raised in a magic family, nearly faint, was a whole different thing.

She suddenly felt dizzy, her head spinning and her stomach on fire. Her heart was pounding in her ears and she fell to her knees, holding her head and breathing hard as her lungs ached. It was a panic attack. She had had one before, when her father died.

Lily vaguely took notice of Gabriel Truman walking into the common room, accompanied by three other friends from last year, all in their Pyjamas with wands in hand. All she could tell was that suddenly someone got her up and laid her on the sofa.

"Take slow, deep breaths." Said Gabriel's voice. She did. Then she realized she had her eyes shut.

Slowly, the faces of Gabriel, Cedric and Susan came into focus.

"Here, have a chocolate." Said Susan. Lily took it and bit one end. Then she managed to calm down and confirm what Susan had told Gabriel about Hermione Granger being unaware of the troll.

"We have to hurry." Gabriel addressed to his friends. "Granger might be hurt."

Cedric's face was white. Gabriel and his friends seemed about to faint or have panic attacks as well, but as true Hufflepuffs they managed to keep calm in order to help someone.

They were opening the door to the passageway, in order to find a teacher, or at the worst of the possibilities, look for Hermione on their own, when Pomona Sprout, the head of Hufflepuff, crawled through the entrance to be with her students. First, she stood up. Then, she looked at Gabriel and his friends.

"Where on earth do you think you are going?" She shouted. Lily had never seen professor Sprout, usually a very kind woman, that angry.

"P-professor-" Gabriel stuttered.

"They were about to go looking for Hermione Granger. She was in the bathroom and didn't show up to the feast. I told them and they were about to do something very heroic, professor." Somehow Lily managed to get the strength to say that firmly.

Professor Sprout sighed in relief.

"Not to worry, then, Mr. Truman. Ms. Granger and her friends have already been found. Foolish girl, thinking she could deal with a troll by herself. Thank goodness they are all safe."

The Hufflepuffs looked at each other, confused. Lily had just told them Hermione didn't know about the troll and now professor Sprout had just said Hermione had gone looking for the troll. Lily, however, got the message. It was a lie to protect the other people found with her. She never thought Know-It-All-Granger could possibly lie to a teacher, but she had just done it. And who was she protecting?

"Her friends, professor?"

"Yes, yes. Harry Potter and your cousin, Ron Weasley."

"Ron!" Cried Lily. "Is he alright?"

"As I said, they are all safe. They went to find Ms. Granger and saved her life, I would say." professor Sprout explained. "Now, off to bed, all of you. And five points to Hufflepuff for your bravery." all the students complied, as they were mentally exhausted after what had just happened.

"Congratulations, Lily. You just earned us five points." whispered Susan when they got to bed.

The next morning came sooner than they expected, but she wasted no time laying on her bed. Instead she got dressed and rushed to the great hall to meet Ron.

Since it was saturday, there weren't many students awake, as everyone usually preferred to sleep until later on weekends, and Lily would usually do the same, but after last night, she simply had to go meet her cousin.

"Ron! Are you alright? What happened?" Lily asked as she sat at the Gryffindor table with Ron, Harry and Hermione.

The three of them proceeded to tell how they had found the troll and how it attacked Hermione and how brave Harry was, jumping over the beast, and how Ron had managed to make the troll's club float in midair and then fall on the troll's head, knocking him out. But the most amazing part was how Hermione had lied to protect them. Then Lily told them how she remembered Hermione and how the Hufflepuffs were about to go after when professor Sprout informed them what had happened.

"Thank you for worrying about me, Lily." Hermione smiled.

"Girls must look out for each other." it had been literally the first value Violet ever taught Lily.

The three of them smiled at her and her heart felt warm. She knew perfectly well she wasn't part of that friendship, but it was a fact that she was Ron's cousin and that Hermione and Harry had grown to care for her in the last minutes.

"Don't forget about your detention, Boyd. My office, after lunch." said Snape's cold voice from behind them. Lily bent her head back to look at him and nod with a light smile. Then he left, limping.

"I don't understand why you like him, Lily." Said Ron, looking around to see if Snape was listening. "He is a horrible person."

"I know he might be a little rude sometimes-"

"Sometimes? He is awful! He takes points from me for no reason!" Said Harry.

"I'm telling you, he's bitter. Something happened to him. People are not born being rude to everyone. And he is quite interesting when you get to pass that. I mean… I'm not losing any more points. And on my first potions class he gave me back all the points he had taken unfairly."

"Well, that was lucky." Stated Ron.

"He says I'm like my mom. I think they were somewhat close at some point. Not really friends, but I think she saw the same I do."

"Whatever you say it is…" Harry shrugged. Hermione let out a sigh.

"Well, nothing you can say will change my mind, just as nothing I can say will change yours." Lily decided to end the discussion. There was nothing to argue about, anyway. She dedicated her time to study potions and understand Snape, just as Hermione dedicated her time to study everything and understand… everything. Nothing could be done about that. Not even the fact that Lily did oppose to the way Snape acted towards everyone. She wanted to change that instead of hating him.

After lunch, on that same day, Lily said goodbye to Susan and walked to professor Snape's office. She knocked on the door and opened it two seconds after, to find Snape massaging his leg. His leg, which had a bloody bandage around it. Black eyes stared at her angrily.

"I am sorry, professor. I came for detention. I'm-"

"Supposed to wait until I say you can come in." He spoke through his teeth. It was obviously hurting.

"Please, let me help." Once again, she didn't wait for an answer and bent beside snape to cut off the bandages. But Snape didn't complain at all.

It was ugly. There was a major perforation and it looked like a dog bite. But coming from a dog that was possibly the size of a dragon. It looked completely disgusting and was probably infected.

"P-professor… is there a potion to clean that?" She spoke through her hand, as she felt she was going to be sick or pass out.

"Yes. Get the purple bottle on the third shelf." Judging by how his voice came out, it was a miracle he was getting himself to walk. "Five drops will do."

Lily quickly got the potion bottle and applied all the five drops, counting each one out loud, just to make sure. Then Snape conjured new bandages and Lily helped him wrap it around the wound.

"Wouldn't it be wiser to see madam Pomfrey about this?" she looked up while finishing the bandage. Being a very energetic child meant she got hurt often, she had many scars on her arms and one or two deep cuts in her knees, so she knew how to improvise a bandage and how to judge on whether it was worth going to a hospital or not and that was most definitely the case of seeking medical help.

"No. I can deal with this. And you would do good not to tell anyone about this either." Snape covered his leg with the robes and got up, leaping through the door. "I'll have some problems solved and be back within thirty minutes. I hope you are done with the floor and desk by then and so I can instruct you with the bottles." He said before shutting the door, leaving Lily with no clue on how the hell she was to clean the floor.

But then she saw a mop and a bucket with water and soap. As she cleaned the floor, she realized it couldn't be just soap, there had to be some sort of potion in there too, because the floor was nearly glittering and not even one quarter of the bucket's content was gone yet. As for the table, there were many books and a slightly dirty caldron on it. For the books, she cleaned the dust of the books shelves and organized them in alphabetical order. For the caldron, she wasn't sure how to clean it and decided to ask Snape later rather than ruin it. He was no longer being unfair to her, but ruin the potions master caldron did seem a good way to get another detention and, once the potions master was Snape, than her house could wave goodbye to half of it's points.

She cleaned the desk with the same potion in the bucket and had just sat down to work a little bit on her transfiguration essay when Snape walked back in.

"Professor, I wasn't sure how to clean your caldron properly, so I decided to ask later." She got up immediately, stuffing her parchment and quill back into her bag.

"Are you done with the floor and table? Very well. Now, for the flasks, I will have them safely removed from the shelves, you will clean them and then you will organize them as I say." was it her impression or Snape was making it easy for her on purpose? Or maybe… was he having fun?

With one wave of his wand, Snape got all the flasks of ingredients and ready potions to one corner of the room. As she cleaned the glass with a cloth soaked in the same potion she used on everything else, Lily tried to make some small talk with Snape, who was reading.

"What happened to your leg?"

"None of your business." Lily looked back to stare at him with anger in her deep gray eyes. "I already told you, don't expect me to be your friend. Nor will I be your father." This time, Lily's mouth fell open in half a second as she stared at him. How did he know? How could he tell? Lily was pretty sure she never told anyone about her father. Nobody but Susan and the Weasleys were supposed to know. And neither of them were so fond of Snape they would go around telling him things about Lily's family.

"Who said-"

"Your mother told me what happened on that day at the Leaky Caldron. Unfortunately for you, I am not available nor interested on becoming an eleven year old's father overnight."

"I don't- I don't want you to be my father! I don't want anyone to be my father. My father is dead, nothing can change that. Not magic, not some god, not all the '_he still lives inside my heart_' ridiculous stuff. Replacing him doesn't sound like something that will change much, huh?" she was both very angry and very hurt. Snape had touched her just in that spot where she couldn't tolerate pain at all. However, all she said wasn't completely true. She didn't look at Snape as a fatherly figure, but she did long for a family, especially ever since the fight with Hector.

"Either way, it's none of your business." Snape seemed shaken with Lily's reaction

"As my father is none of yours." Lily knew she shouldn't say something like that, but Snape had gone too far. "I am your student and you are my teacher, and for some reason we somewhat care about each other. That doesn't give you the slightest right…"

"To talk to me like that. One more word on that voice and I'll make sure you clean the entire school with a toothbrush." He shouted.

He wouldn't. He just wouldn't. He cared for Lily and both of them already knew it by the time, only Snape was too proud to take a like for any student that wasn't from Slytherin. But Lily stopped anyway. She didn't want one more fight, especially with someone who _could_ make her clean an entire castle if they wanted.

"Stop crying." Only then Lily realized the burning sensation in the corner of her eyes. She was crying. But she couldn't stop. All of a sudden, the pain from the loss of her father, along with her fight with Hector, was too much.

She wrapped her arms around herself, shaking slightly, and sobbed. Then she relocated one hand to cover her face. She didn't see, but Snape seemed to freeze, unsure of what to do. All she could tell was that his cloak was suddenly around her as he calmly conducted her to another chair. Then he sat on his chair and kept staring at her, as if he expected her to stop crying all because of that. As a last resource, he got two cups, filled them with water and transfigured it into tea. Ginger tea, which happened to be Lily's favorite.

Hesitantly, she took a small gulp. It was tasty. Slowly, she stopped crying, or at least ran out of tears to cry.

"Alright I'll do something, but don't expect me to do anything near that again." Snape gave her a tissue to dry her eyes. "I'm sorry I said that."

"I'm sorry." Lily wiped her tears and took another gulp of the tea. "I shouldn't talk like that. I know. It's just that- there's too much going on. Last year my father died right in front of me. Then all of a sudden I'm a witch. And then my mother tells me she's a witch, and that I have an entire family that's been hidden from me all my life and… I don't blame her, I would hide too, but… she could have prepared me." Lily made a pause to hold back her tears by taking another gulp from the cup. "And then Hector was acting strange ever since we were sorted in different houses, and then we fought after our first flying lesson and we never talked again except when we fought." She finished.

"The Ravenclaw?" She expected all things from Snape, except that he would talk to her about that. Did Snape not say he wasn't her friend? That he wouldn't help?

"Y-yes. He was sorted into Ravenclaw when I went to Hufflepuff."

"I had a fight with my best friend once. I said something I regret saying."

"What- how did you apologise?"

"I didn't. We are no longer friends. And now there is nothing I can do about it." His black eyes looked distant, like he was travelling far away from time.

"Of course there is. Nothing is irreversible." But Lily immediately regretted saying that. By the look in his eyes, what had happened was irreversible. His best friend had died. That's why he was bitter. It made perfect sense. It fit.

"Everything is irreversible after the Dark Lord walks upon it." He muttered, more to himself than to Lily.

"I'm so sorry." She looked down, not willing to see what could possibly be hidden deep in his eyes, because that something had started to show and it was painful to look at. And she knew that that something was also in her eyes. "professor… there is something I never told anyone. When my father died, he was trying to-" she swallowed dry to try and stop that burning sensation in her throat. It didn't stop, and her voice failed several times, each time it felt more painful, before she could speak again. "He was trying to push me out of the way of the bus that hit him." And she burst into tears again.

Lily had never managed to bring herself to tell that detail about her father's death. It was all her fault. If she had listened to him, if she had been more careful, he would be alive. It was obvious. It was so painfully obvious, and she couldn't get the courage to tell that to her mother. It was as obvious as the difference between life and death.

"It's all- all my fault."

Snape didn't move. Nor did he say anything. He looked like he was trying to digest the information she had just given him.

"It was your fault. Just as it was the driver's fault for not stopping for a child. As it was his fault for not hold your hand. He chose to save you. If the bus was close enough to kill you, then he knew he couldn't save himself. And yet he decided you were worth giving his life for." He said carefully, after a while, still looking at Lily, who was still crying. "Now that he died, you have the obligation to _live._ If you waste your time blaming yourself, then you will throw away his sacrifice."

"I- I had never looked at it from that angle." Lily had her teary eyes fixed on his, both of them were looking into the guilt so well hidden in each other. "I suppose it is true."

"It is. And will get easier now that you spoke of it." Snape finally moved and touched Lily's shoulder. She took a deep breath.

"Thank you." It did feel like she would get better.

"Now, let's start organizing the shelves." Snape's empathy disappeared as fast as it had appeared, and Lily understood what it meant not being friends. It meant he wouldn't treat her like professor Sprout did, nor would he favour her like he did to other Slytherins. But he would help her when she truly needed.


	11. Chapter 11

**Quidditch**

The weather had turned very cold by the beginning of November. The mountains around the school had turned to a very beautiful icy gray and every morning the students woke up to find the school grounds covered in frost. The lake was covered by a thin layer of ice, which stopped all the ondulations, even the ones caused by the giant squid swimming in the dark. Lily wondered if the creatures in the lake were alright with the cold. Perhaps merpeople weren't bothered by the cold.

Every morning, Hagrid defrosted the brooms in the quidditch field, which meant a great deal for Lily, since it relieved her from the duty of defrosting brooms herself. Ever since the Halloween, she was being trained by the Hufflepuff team both as a beater and a seeker, since they would lose both by next year. She was a better beater than a seeker, that was for sure. Linda Thompson, the current beater that were to be replaced by Lily next year, kept reminding her of her skills. The trainings were light at first, until she got used to moving on a broomstick. But when it became clear that Lily was a skilled flier, they started getting harder and harder.

Of course they didn't require her to beat bludgers straight away. She was currently still training with increasingly heavier balls the other players threw at her. Sometimes, they made her fly far, far away, to get the ball they had thrown before it hit someone. Of course that someone was always armed with a wand to blow up the ball if it was coming too fast and gave no sign that would stop. Lily nearly never missed a ball, however.

As for the trainment as possible seeker, they were clearly not betting on it since Cedric was interested in replacing Jeanne in two years and Cedric was far better than Lily as a seeker. She had seen him fly more than once, when the team had asked him for help with training Lily as a beater. The training consisted on the whole team throwing things at Cedric, who was flying around, and Lily was supposed to protect him.

Lily trained often, but not as often as she wished since the Hufflepuff team had to practice to the Quidditch Season, which approached. The opening game would be Gryffindor against Slytherin, on saturday. Which meant that Harry would participate on his first match and Ron wouldn't talk about any other subject.

Hardly anyone had seen Harry play, but Lily had managed to sneak into the quidditch field at evenings and watched him practice. And it was beautiful. The control that boy had over his broomstick made her feel like a little duck trying to compare itself to a gorgeous swan. It looked like the broom was an extension of Harry.

It had given her energy to do her best at trainings. She wanted that. She wanted more. She wanted to practice until she could fly like a bird.

Lily was just reading her personal copy of Quidditch Through the Ages when Hermione borrowed the one from the library to Harry.

Each day without Hector seemed increasingly lonelier. She still had Susan, and Ron, and the twins, and even Cedric, but it was just not the same. She didn't have the same connection with them. With Hector, she only needed a look to express her thoughts. With anybody else, she needed a whole dialogue. There was no syntony with them. Not that Lily didn't love Ron, Fred and George, they were family. Not that she didn't like Susan and Cedric very much, they were very nice people and cared for her as much as she cared for them. But Hector was a brother. She had never spent more than a week without talking to him, and it had been nearly two months since they had their fist fight.

Seeing him on daily basis and exchanging that remorse look on every breakfast was devastating. It was obvious that he missed her too, but they had both secretly established that they wouldn't apologise until the other did.

The day before Harry's Quidditch match, Susan had gone outside with Hannah and Ernie during break, while Lily stayed inside reading her Herbology book, more especially about the Lumos Solem charm, which would cast a very bright and narrow beam of light and was useful against a plant called Devil's Snare.

After classes, she stayed until evening in the library doing her homework and revising. She had to keep her grades high in order to practice quidditch and keep her position granted for next year, so she revised nearly every day and getting fairly good at almost all the subjects. Not top of the class (that would always be Hermione), but better than most. Her only issue now was transfiguration, and she had just spotted one more doubt and decided to go to the staff room looking for McGonagall.

Half the way to there, she bumped into Harry and dropped her transfiguration book and spilled some ink on the floor.

"Oh, no! Filch's gonna kill me!" the book was safe, however, and she was thankful she wouldn't have to write to her mom asking for a new one. But maybe she would have to write asking for more ink. "I'll go to his room to ask him for a cloth to clean this."

"Don't bother. Filch is at the staff room. But don't go there anyway. Snape's there and… Lily, you can't trust him." Harry dragged her a off view from anyone who could be around. "He's got a bite on his leg. I know how he got it. There's a three-headed-dog guarding something on the third floor. Snape tried to get it in Halloween."

"So that's what it was. I thought it looked like a dog bite." her mind diverged from the conversation, dragged by her memories.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Harry's irritated voice caught her back. "You should let us know!"

"You should let me know about some three-headed-dog, then perhaps I would have thought of that. Besides, Snape asked me not to tell anyone. And… I really doubt it. He might not be nice to anyone, but he's no thief." she looked deep into his eyes, trying to make herself sound ensuring.

"He is, Lily. Stop being so stubborn! Anyway, I have to go tell Ron and Hermione. See you later. Sorry about your ink."

Shaking her head, Lily headed to the staff room and waited outside for Filch. She heard a lot of offensive names coming from his mouth before he finally gave her the cloth and soap she wanted and told her to clean the mess.

Lily went to bed still thinking of that. What could Snape be doing, trying to pass through a three-headed-dog. What was the dog guarding? What was Dumbledore hiding in the school? But the questions didn't keep her awake for too long. Next morning she would watch Harry's match, and she would sit with Ron and see that boy fly like a bird and, hopefully, catch the snitch before the Slytherin seeker.

It was very unexpected when, in the next morning, she would go up the stairs to the first floor to get her breakfast, and find Hector being threatened by two huge Slytherin boys who looked like they had more fat than brain tissue. They were Crabbe and Goyle, the two boys they had met in Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, back in the summer break. Lily knew perfectly how Hector was unable to stand up for himself, since she was always the one getting on fights to protect him. Lily got her wand out of her pocket and held it tightly. Then she walked to where the two boys were cornering Hector and spoke as loudly and threateningly as she could.

"Is there something wrong?" Crabbe and Goyle froze for a moment and then turned at her, clearly looking for someone bigger. It took them a while to look down at her. They laughed. And then stopped when she raised her wand. "Do anything like that again and I'll make sure you look like the pig you are."

Something in her eyes made Crabbe take a step back. But he got his courage again when he was at a safe distance from her wand.

"What, are you gonna curse me? You're barely a witch." he mocked.

"You learned everything Malfoy taught you, didn't you? Just like the good puppy you are." she spat.

Goyle took a step towards her, getting dangerously close. Thankfully, another voice spoke. This time, it was Cedric. And Cedric looked more like a threat than Lily. Crabbe and Goyle looked at each other and left at the same time. Cowards. Then Cedric left too, after making sure the two of them were alright.

"A-are you sure you are okay?" Lily couldn't help but look at the floor while asking that question. How long had that been happening?

"I'm fine. What about you?" Hector' eyes also looked distant.

"I'm fine. Hector, how long has this been happening?" She felt an urgency to hug him, but restrained herself. Hector took a deep breath, looking away from her.

"I don't want to talk about this." He said sharply, and then left, leaving Lily with her mouth open, unable to think of a proper answer.

She tried to forget while sitting with the Weasley twins for breakfast. They looked nervous, but tried to make a few jokes anyway.

The Great Hall smelled like sausages and the air was filled with cheerful chatter of everyone. They, just like Lily, looked forward to a good Quidditch match. Lily should be more excited than most, since it would be the first match she ever watched, but Lily's mind had been taken away by Hector' words. He didn't want to talk about that. Which meant that, for him, they were no longer close enough to share their discomfort, even in a situation like this. It meant he had been bullied, but didn't seek her for help. And deep in her heart, something other than pride made its mark upon her feelings on that fight. What if Hector was no longer her best friend?

"Hey, cheer up, Lily. We promise not to lose for Slytherin!" Said George.

"And you will be so proud of us you will ask us to train you for that position as Hufflepuff beater." Said Fred.

"Wait! How did you get to know?! Nobody besides me, the Hufflepuff team and Cedric were supposed to know."

"You haven't been hiding well. But don't worry. We have been keeping it a secret." Fred whispered, calmly. "You'll be the best beater Hufflepuff had in ages!"

Lily smiled at that thought and felt much better.

By eleven O'clock, the entire school was at the stands around the Quidditch pitch outside, some had binoculars and most had their cloaks on, since it was a very cold morning. Lily and Susan were sitting near a group of students from Gryffindor, including Ron and Hermione, who had painted letters on a ragged red blanket. It wrote "Potter for President" and someone had painted a beautiful Gryffindor lion on the corner. Hermione had performed a charm so that the paint flashed different colors. Lily was sure it had been Hermione because she had read about the spell and it was really tricky.

Lily and Susan made sure to wear red and Lily had painted a little lion on her forehead. The two girls sat as close to each other as possible, trying to get some body heat to keep the cold away, but they were no longer bothered by the temperature once the teams walked into the field with their brooms. All the students on the stands cheered with all their voice powers.

Madam Hooch was refereeing that match. She stood in the middle of the field, holding her broomstick and waiting for the two teams.

"Now, I want a nice fair game!" she said, loud enough for the whole stage to hear. "Mount your brooms please.

Than, with a loud blast of Madam Hooch's whistle, all the fifteen brooms went up, high into the air. They were off. Lee's commentaries saved Lily the time to recognize all the players and watch what they were doing. She had her eyes particularly on the Weasley twins. They were flying around the field, one of them slightly higher than the players and the other slightly lower, coordinating their movements so they could watch all the players and beat the Bludgers to the right direction - Oh no, they missed! One Bludger hit Katie Bell in the back of her head and she lost the Quaffle! Flint had the Quaffle! No, one of the twins sent a Bludger to him. Angelina had the Quaffle! She had a clear field ahead of her. What an amazing flier Angelina was, diving to dodge the speed Bludger like that! GRYFFINDOR SCORED!

Gryffindor students cheered loudly, and Lily and Susan cheered along.

Hagrid, the huge gamekeeper, came to join Ron and Hermione. Susan and Lily also had to squeeze together a little to allow him to sit. Apparently, he had been watching the game from his hut before.

Lily looked up to see Harry. He was still out of the game, probably looking for any sign of the Snitch, but there was none. One of the twins had to go to him to beat away a Bludger, and sent it again to Marcus Flint.

Slytherin had the Quaffle now, although Fred and George were furiously trying to get him away by throwing Bludgers at Adrian Pucey at cannonball speed.

"Wait, was that the Snitch?" Said Lee Jordan's voice. A murmur ran through the crowd. Slytherin's chaser dropped the Quaffle to look over his shoulder to the flash of gold that had been there not a second before.

Harry rushed down, at unbelievable speed, while Slytherin Seeker did the same. The game had stopped to watch them.

Harry was faster than the Slytherin Seeker, and the Snitch was just in front of him when-

"FOUL!" Yelled Lily, along with the entire Gryffindor stand. Marcus Flint had blocked Harry on purpose, and Harry's broom spun off.

A boy from Gryffindor insisted that Flint should be given the red card, until Ron explained that there were no red cards in Quidditch.

Lee Jordan's side was quite obvious.

"So - after that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating-"

"Jordan!" growled Professor McGonagall.

"I mean, after that open and revolting foul

"Jordan, I'm warning you -"

"All right, all right. Flint nearly kills the Gryffindor Seeker, which could happen to anyone, I'm sure, so a penalty to Gryffindor, taken by Spinner, who puts it away, no trouble, and we continue play, Gryffindor still in possession."

Damage had been done, however. The Snitch was lost again, and Flint's foul had potentially given Slytherin the time they needed to score enough goals to reach Gryffindor.

Slytherin had scored a goal when Lily looked up in frustration and her eyes met the most terrifying scene she had ever seen.

"SOMEONE DO SOMETHING!" she screamed, watching Harry nearly falling from his broomstick. It was lurching from side to side, up and down and Harry was holding with his hand and knees. "He's going to fall!"

"Do you think Flint jinxed him?" Susan gasped at every move the broom made. Harry was now hanging on one hand. He _was_ going to fall.

"A Nimbus Two Thousand? There's no way, Flint is too dumb. There would have to be a experienced wizard-" Lily was just finishing to say that when she got silent by what Hermione was doing. She had Hagrid's binoculars on and looked frantically at the crowd. Lily got closer.

"What are you doing?" She asked to Ron.

"It's Snape! He's jinxing the broom!"

"What?" She grabbed the binoculars and looked. Snape had his eyes fixed on Harry and was muttering something. "It can't be…"

"He is! Face it Lily!"

"What should we do?" She asked, already thinking of what she would say to Snape afterwards.

"Leave it to me." Said Hermione, and left.

Not knowing what to do, Lily went back to Susan.

"He's going to fall!"

"He's not going to fall. Hermione is going to solve that, she's going to save him, I know it!" Said Lily, looking up to see Harry. He was in poor conditions. The broomstick vibrated too hard for anyone to hang on for that long, Lily was amazed that he did.

The whole crowd was standing, some had their wands in hand, hoping to do something, but most hadn't the faintest idea what to do.

The Weasley twins had tried to get Harry and bring him onto one of their brooms, but every time they tried to get him, the broom vibrated even harder, and now they were circling beneath Harry to try and catch him if he fell.

Suddenly, Harry's broom stopped moving and he managed to clamber onto it again. Whatever Hermione had done, it had worked.

"He's safe!" Lily and Susan had been squeezing each other's hand the whole time, and now they let go.

Then, Harry dived, speeding toward the ground and clapped his hand against his mouth. Perhaps all that lurching and the panic had made him sick! Harry hit the field on all fours - coughed - and looked at his own hand.

"I got the Snitch!" he shouted, waving it above his head.

Gryffindor had won by one hundred seventy points to sixty. And the crowd lost it. They shouted, jumped, cheered and whistled, all at once, making so much noise no one could hear what Marcus Flint was yelling at Madam Hooch. Lee Jordan kept shouting the results. Harry was carried away by a wave of Gryffindors before Lily could congratulate him. She decided not to follow him, and go after professor Snape instead.

It was tempting to burst into his office shouting about what he had done, but Lily knew better than to do stupid stuff again. She should, of course, knock on the door and wait for him to let her in. And that's what she did. She would confront him, she would make him stop.

"Come in." said Snape's voice.

"Professor?" she took a step into the room. Snape was sitting on his chair, reading essays. "Professor, what happened back in the game? I saw you. You had eye contact with Harry and you were muttering something."

"Say what you are thinking."

"I think-" she started "that I don't care if you hate Harry, or even if you keep taking points from my cousin with no reason, but jinxing his broom on his first match? Are you out of your mind? That's not something I ever expected to say to an adult." Lily tried to speak as calmly as she could, imitating the way Snape silently kept his classroom quiet.

"I wasn't trying to jinx Potter's broom. He wouldn't have lasted that long without the countercurse I was casting."

Lily was about to spit a harder answer at whatever he was about to say, but close her mouth fast enough to avoid any possible damage. She wasn't expecting that answer. Countercurse?

"You were trying to save him… then who was jinxing the broomstick?"

The atmosphere turned unexpectedly dark and cold.

"That is none-"

"That is something of my concern. Harry is my cousin's best friend, whoever is trying to hurt him might be trying to harm Ron too. And might be trying to frame you, because it won't be long before they connect it to the fact that you tried to get past that dog on Halloween."

"Who told you about the dog?" Snape rouse up to his fit, letting the chair fall behind him.

"Harry. He overheard you yesterday talking to Filch." Lily said, trying not to get concerned by the look in Snape's face. Something was wrong with the school. Why was there a three headed dog in the first place? "Professor, what's going on?"

"Lily, I want you to stop defending me from your friends. I want you to keep an eye on them and tell me everything. I need to know how fast they are going."

"You are asking me to spy on them. I won't."

"This is not a matter of loyalty anymore."

"Then what is it?"

"That dog is, as you must already have guessed, guarding something. And I must protect it. Potter and his friends are getting dangerously close from something they should stay away from." Lily knew Snape wouldn't simply ask her to spy on her friends. But what if he _was_ trying to steal whatever was being guarded by the dog?

"Professor, what exactly is the dog guarding?"

"Ask Dumbledore if you will. I cannot tell you."

Lily thought for a moment. There was something hidden, that was a fact. Snape wouldn't tell her what was hidden. Snape wouldn't ask her to convince Harry, Ron and Hermione that they were wrong about him. Everything was too suspicious, from both sides, and Lily was about to refuse Snape's request when she got an idea. She would be able to judge what information to give Snape, and would be able to understand what was happening.

"Right. I'll keep an eye on them." she said. "But don't expect me to trust you, at least not until I have reasons to."

"I don't"

Lily gave him a meaningful look and turned away. She considered going to the third floor herself, but facing a three headed dog on her own sounded useless. Dumbledore was right, she had to keep away from that place unless she decided to suffer the most painful death.

Perhaps Susan could help- no. She wouldn't ask anyone else to help her spying on people she trusted. No one else should give up on their dignity.


	12. Chapter 12

**Duel in the Great Hall**

Weather turned freezing cold as Christmas got nearer. One morning, at mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. Few were the owls strong enough to battle their way through the bad weather, but Lily got a letter from her mother. It came with Helga during breakfast.

"_Dear Lily, I'm sorry for the late warning, but Arthur invited me to go with them to Romania see Charlie. Since it's been so long, I would like to go with them. Would it be alright for you to spend Christmas with Hector and Rachel? Let me know in the next letter."_

Lily thought for a moment. There was no way she would spend a whole week with Hector, in his house, without talking to him for over two months. She would rather go with her mom and meet some unknown cousin who dealt with dragons for living. But since there was no such option, she wrote:

"_Mom, things are not going well with Hector, I haven't spoken to him in over two months. I would prefer to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas. Have a good time with the Weasleys and say hello to Charlie for me. I'm looking forwards to meet him too. _

_PS: Give Helga a week before sending her back."_

She tied the letter to Helga's leg and gave the owl some bacon, although she wasn't sure bacon was very good for owls. Helga was a very strong owl, most of the others couldn't make the journey back and had to be nursed by Hagrid until full recovery.

Violet had found herself a new way to earn wizard money, much better than her job in the muggle world. She was brewing and delivering all kinds of potions, using the car or the flu netway. The owner of a shop in Diagon Alley was interested on buying large amounts of her potions to re-sell in her shop. Lily and her had been exchanging letters, talking about a plan to move to the countryside and building a little house, just for the two of them, where they could start over as part of the wizard world. Lily had been expecting to go home for Christmas and use the time to put that idea to practice. They could start looking for places to build their house, or maybe Lily could ask her what to do about Hector, perhaps even ask about Snape. There was so much to learn, so much she wanted to know-

Feeling her heart a little tight in her chest, she went outside to a walk in the frozen courtyard.

It was impossible not to laugh when she saw professor Quirrell running away from several snowballs Fred and George had bewitched to follow him around and bounce off against the back of his turban. At least he didn't stink that much when Lily's nose felt like it was about to freeze and fall off her face.

On one of the following days, Lily signed the list McGonagall passed by the students to know how many of them would be staying through the Holidays. She didn't see Hector in the list, but she did see Harry and Ron.

The Hufflepuff Common room, as always, was warm and cosy, and the Great Hall had a fire running constantly, but walking through the corridors to the classrooms was becoming unbearable. All the Hufflepuff first years walked around very close to each other to generate some body heat, but their fingers still felt somewhat harder as they turned the pages of their books, or held their wands in Charms lessons. But the worst of all - even Lily had to admit - were the Potions lessons. Down in the dungeons, there was no source of heat besides the caldrons and their breath rose as mist in front of them. In fact, Lily had gotten a heavy cold that extended for an entire week and she couldn't stop coughing and sneezing over her caldron, which spoiled one of her potions. Snape didn't take any points from her, but used it as an excuse to keep her behind after class.

As professor Snape had asked, Lily was focusing on extracting information from Harry, Ron and Hermione, but that wasn't getting anywhere. All they talked about was on how Snape had jinxed Harry's broom, and how he was planning to steal whatever it was hidden under the dog. They had learned from Hagrid that, whatever it was, it had something to do with someone named Nicolas Flamel. There were just three days to go until the Christmas break, but Snape still made her stay behind after every class to talk about that. Lily no longer asked how long would that last.

"No, I haven't learned anything new. Who is this Nicolas Flamel, professor?" asked Lily on one Thursday afternoon when he had summoned her to his office after class and offered her ginger tea again."I'm sure I heard the name somewhere." She said between gulps. It made her throat feel better.

Snape didn't seem to be paying any attention and, instead, was brewing a potion in his caldron. "That particular piece of information is not of your concern." he said coldly while adding bicorn horn to the potion. That was what he always said, that something was not of Lily's concern.

"Has it ever occurred to you that it is of my concern? I am the one spying on them. I should know something."

"No matter how much I find Potter a despising person, I believe that it's not a good idea to give eleven-year-olds information that might as well kill them." he was now pouring the potion into a small goblet. It was smoking. "take it, it will heal the cold. It's Pepperup potion."

Snape was having one of his rare moments of kindness towards Lily. She took the goblet and drank it's content at once, and it was awful. Didn't taste exactly bad, but perhaps that was because the potion had burned her tongue and throat, leaving no sign that her insides would ever grow back to normal. She must have made a really horrible expression, because Snape had a smile in the corner of his mouth. Only then she realized she had steam coming out of her ears. On the other hand, she didn't feel cold at all. And she could breathe through her nose, which was a great improvement.

"The… interesting… steaming effect will remain for several hours. But you will no longer feel the symptoms of the cold." he explained it all very calmly, ignoring Lily's furious eyes. "by the way, I would appreciate if you stayed over Christmas. Potter and Weasley will remain at school this year, and I believe they are up to something."

"Harry has an awful family. And Ron's parents' are going to stay at Romania for Christmas, visiting my cousin Charlie. My mom is going along with them, so I'm staying at Hogwarts anyway." Lily was trying to massage the steam out of her ears to accelerate the process. It didn't hurt, but she could feel the warmth coming through her ear, and also think of the jokes other people would come up with.

"Cover your ears with hair and no one will notice."

That was not a horrible idea. Indeed, there was enough hair to hide most of the steam. The sensation of hot air moving through her ears was still unpleasant, however.

"Professor-" she started, hesitant "why would someone want to steal whatever is hidden under the dog?"

Snape looked at her for a long time before answering.

"There are more than one reason, but the first one is gold."

"But- if it's for gold, why not get into Gringotts?" Then she remembered something. Someone _had _tried to steal something from Gringotts. From one specific vault that had been emptied on the same day, just hours before. "Professor- could it be that the person who invaded Gringotts in July is in Hogwarts?"

Snape nodded. _Now _it was getting somewhere.

"Something- it is not gold, or they would have stolen any other vault- a magical item?" Snape's lack of answer to Lily's guess made her understand it was time for her to stop asking.

The Great Hall was already half decorated for Christmas, but Hagrid, McGonagall and Flitwick seemed to be obsessed. There were lights all over, and many trees. The place even smelled like Christmas.

Lily still had a little bit of steam coming out of her ears on that night, and Susan couldn't help but laugh when she showed what was happening.

"Are you sure it wasn't a joke, Lily?"

"Yes, I'm sure. I can't feel any symptoms anymore." Lily carefully placed her red curls over her ears again. She had been doing it obsessively ever since she had left Snape's office in the dungeons "can you see any of it?"

"No, your hair is covering it all. Don't worry." Susan had a spoon in her mouth as she tried to answer and swallow soup at the same time. "Stop touching your hair or everyone will see you're hiding something."

Cedric Diggory came from behind them, suddenly, making the girls jump. He was smiling, as he always did while talking to them.

"What are you hiding, Lily? I heard Gabriel Truman say he's been worried that Snape is keeping you behind so often after his classes." he sat down to talk to them, and helped himself to a sausage, even though he had already eaten with his friends from third year, by the other side of the table.

"Nothing- " Lily didn't want Cedric to know about the Pepperup potion. And specially didn't want anyone to know about her spying on her friends, as that was a very reprovable thing to do, especially to a Hufflepuff. Susan had her mouth open, but she shut it at Lily's warning look.

"Oh, tell me! I won't tell Gabriel if you got detention, as long as you're not losing Hufflepuff any more points."

"I- asked Snape to give me extra work.-" Lily made up as fast as she could "you see, my mother delivers potions for living. Potions she makes herself, of course. I thought I could help in the future. But don't tell anyone, I promised Snape-"

Cedric's face changed into an understanding expression, and his smile got smaller, with no teeth showing. He nodded, and then changed subjects.

"So, are you excited for Christmas holidays?"

"Oh, yes!" said Susan at once "I miss my parents already." But Lily's silence seemed to intrigue Cedric.

"Aren't you looking forwards to it, Lily?"

"Oh, no. Not really. My mother is going to Romania to visit my cousin Charlie, along with my family. I am staying at school for Christmas."

"When were you planning to tell me that?" A voice, a very angry voice, came from behind Lily. She turned back quickly. It was Hector. Lily shut her eyes heavily. He wasn't supposed to learn it in that way.

"I-" Lily couldn't finish the sentence.

"Or maybe you weren't planning on telling me, and I would just figure out when I walked into the train and didn't see you!" His voice was rising.

"Well, if you had bothered to talk to me for the last two months, then maybe you would know already!" Lily stood up to face him. Cedric said something behind her, but she didn't listen.

"I would, if you weren't more concerned about everything else but me!"

Lily felt something burn inside her brain.

"Because you only want me to be concerned about you, because you think you are the center of the universe!" she hissed between her teeth. It would be really bad to make a scene in the middle of the Great Hall.

"I don't care how you spend your time, I just think it would be nice if you cared to ask how am I doing! Instead, you only want to be with people I don't have any bounds with!" Hector' tone of voice changed from an angry hissing to a low shouting. And he was moving closer to her, in an unfriendly way.

"You could, if you didn't need me to make friends for you!" Lily pushed him back, with both hands on his chest.

"I have friends of my own." He pushed her back, but being much larger, she nearly fell to the floor.

"Do you? I still had to protect you last month!" Lily forgot about making a scene, she didn't care if everyone was looking at them shouting at each other, she felt so deeply wronged, she wanted him to recognise his mistakes.

Cedric and Susan were now standing next to the Hufflepuff table, clearly with no idea what to do. By the Ravenclaw table, Padma Patil and Penelope Clearwater, the prefect, were also standing.

"I didn't ask you to do that"

"You wouldn't have a face if I hadn't done something. What would your mother say-"

"I don't know! Ask her! Or maybe you don't really care, since you seem to have changed families now!"

"Well, at least I have a family!" Lily shouted, not thinking anymore.

"Except for a father!" Hector shouted back, shaking in anger, and raised his wand at her with one fast movement of his arm.

Lily did the same and in a split second both of them were aiming at each other. Hector' mouth opened and Lily thought of a jinx she had learned from books. They shouted the spells at the same time, which was luck, since the light coming out of their wands met in midair and rebounded, reaching the ceiling and the floor instead. They shouted jinxes, aiming at each other, and Lily felt her eyes becoming teary and her voice trembling as she attacked her friend, each jinx rebounding at each other and miraculously not harming anyone. Then, what seemed to be hours later, but were just a few seconds, both wands flew from their hands and landed in Dumbledore's table. Hector and Lily made a movement to physically attack each other, but each one of them was held by someone. Cedric and Gabriel Truman held Hector, who was still struggling, while Fred and George went for Lily. She didn't resist and, instead, started crying.

In a second, professor Dumbledore, professor Sprout and professor Flitwick were standing in front of them. If Lily could see anything through her teary eyes, she would have seen three extremely angry faces and, behind them, at the teacher's table, she would have seen Snape looking at her with a very concerned expression, which he hid as soon as he noticed himself.

Dumbledore's voice resounded through the hall.

"You will finish your dinner and go straight to bed while me and the Heads of the houses will deal with this-" he looked down at the two kids. Lily was still crying uncontrollably, and Hector had stopped struggling "I don't want any comments about this issue."

Dumbledore walked out of the Great Hall, followed by professors Sprout and Flitwick, and then by Hector and Lily, who were both looking at the floor. Behind them, Fred whispered to Lily that she should meet them the next day, in the courtyard.

They followed Dumbledore up, up, up the stairs, to what seemed to be a tower. Lily's feet were starting to hurt and her heavy crying had reduced to silent tears and occasional sobbing. She felt Hector near her, but he wasn't saying anything, and she wasn't intending to make the first movement either.

Finally, they stopped walking when they were in front of a gargoyle.

"Chocolate Frogs" said Dumbledore, still with an angry voice. The gargoyle jumped to the side, revealing a slowly ascending staircase, in the top of which there was an oaken double door. Dumbledore stopped, and turned to them. "I will talk to you individually, as people tend to talk more in the absence of the person whom they just fought with. Professor Flitwick, Mr. Allen, you come in first. Professor Sprout, I will ask you to stay here with Ms. Boyd until we are done."

Professor Dumbledore held the door open for Hector and Flitwick, and then, with a meaningful look at Lily, closed the door.

Lily looked at professor Sprout, expecting her to do something. Comfort her, yell at her, expel her from school, anything. But she didn't. Professor Sprout was wearing a livid expression, indeed, but she said nothing. Being so, Lily sat down on the floor, with her legs against her chest, still crying silently. She closed her eyes against and pressed her face against her knees. Time passed faster than she expected, as all she could think about was what her mother would say when she found out Lily had been duelling in the Great Hall, against her best friend. The tears were already starting to dry on her face and burn her eyes when the door opened again.

Lily raised her face from her knees to see Hector leave the room with his head down. But, for a split second, he looked at her in a way that could mean they would make peace eventually. Also, he didn't look like someone who had just been expelled from a School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, so perhaps Lily wouldn't have to pack up and go home on that very night.

"Lily, Pomona, would you come in, please?" Said Dumbledore, sounding way more calm than he had before. Lily got up, her legs shaking under her robes, and stepped into the Headmaster's Office.

She couldn't help but look around at all the several portraits of sleeping wizards, perhaps Headmasters previous to Dumbledore. The sorting hat was resting on a shelf, and there were many, many books all over the place. Lily felt more intelligent just by stepping into that room.

"Please, sit down." Lily obeyed, and professor Sprout stood behind her chair. "Lily, I believe I have told all pupils on our first night, that the use of magic in the hallways between classes is forbidden in Hogwarts."

"Yes, Headmaster-"

"I also believe you are smart enough to figure out that using magic against other students is also against the school rules. Do you realize people could have been seriously injured?"

"I do. I am sorry, I was just… so angry!" Lily's mouth was dry from the yelling and crying.

"Would you care to tell me what happened, from your point of view?"

"Right. Well- me and Hector- we have been friends all over our childhood. Family, really." Lily felt her voice shake a little bit in the last sentence. Were they still family after that night? "Our mothers were friends before we were born and- we were raised together. So we really know each other, and-" she hesitated again, struggling against new tears.

"We never fought like that before. But after we came to Hogwarts and were sorted into different Houses, we ended up growing distant to each other and I also met a part of my family I didn't even know existed and- you see, Hector's father left his mother before he was born and it upsets him a lot, so when he learned I had more blood family than just my mother, I think that made him feel sad."

"Professor Sprout has told me that you lost your father yourself. I expect that, in a way, Hector felt more connected to you once that happened." Dumbledore stated, now with a very calm voice. Lily had never thought about it from that angle. Could Hector be angry that all the similarity they had was now gone?

"Could be. He- he is very insecure, I have always protected him and now I can't anymore because we are distant. And by the beginning of this semester we had our first fight in ages, and never made peace. He- he was really angry that I like professor Snape; everyone is angry at me because of that. And it got worse and worse and tonight he learned that I'm not going home for Christmas and- I think we both said horrible things to each other.."

Dumbledore, who had been listening quietly to that last explanation, started speaking.

"Did you know, Lily, that Hector has been failing in Potions ever since he got to Hogwarts?"

"What? No! Hector has always been great in all our subjects, and always reads the books-"

"He is terrified of professor Snape. And I do think that is because you like him. He is scared that you might find a father in someone else. Of course a new family in your life means suffering to him, because he trusts you above everyone else. And you, Lily, have turned your back on a friend."

"But- this is not true! I am interested in Potions, and I am making new friends and I was still talking to Hector until he started yelling at me! He never told me anything about failing at Potions, or about bullying, or about anything."

"And have you asked?"

That was true. Lily hadn't asked Hector if he was alright, she had just assumed that he would tell her. He obviously felt betrayed, because they were already in separated houses, and the presence of the Weasleys and her excitement about having blood bounds with more people, must have gotten Hector really nervous and, being shy as he was, it must have been really hard to just say all of that to her face. Lily looked down, no longer feeling like crying. She had been an idiot, just as much as Hector.

"I understand." She said quietly.

"Well, of course there will be consequences to your actions, but that I will leave to the head of your house. Pomona?"

"First of all, I wish to say that I am very disappointed at you, Lily. Not only for your actions tonight, but because you went against the very thing our house values the most: Loyalty. For that, I will be taking fifty points from Hufflepuff, and I will arrange your detention along with professor Flitwick. And be thankful that I won't forbid that you play Quidditch."

Lily felt her heart relax. She had lost her house fifty points, and she had detention, but the Hufflepuffs would be really mad at her if she lost her chance to be the new beater, as everyone was counting on her. Pomona Sprout left the room, apparently still furious, but Lily stayed behind. She wanted to ask something to Dumbledore.

"Yes, Lily?" He encouraged her. Now that he wasn't furious anymore, she could see his kind and understanding look again.

"It is just that… professor, I couldn't help but feel how deeply bitter professor Snape is and I feel somewhat connected to him. I feel that he needs help, and what help could it be that everyone hates him? I thought that people would understand, especially Hector, but they don't"

This time, Dumbledore looked at her in a different way. There was something in his eyes, behind the half-moon spectacles, that Lily couldn't recognise, but was close to surprise, or disbelief. "I am afraid that this is between you and Severus." he said. "He, and only himself, can be the one to tell you. And I beg you, Lily, do not push it. I do not think your connection with Severus is a bad thing, I indeed encourage it, but he is, as you say, bitter, and could use your presence. Can I count on you on that matter?"

"Do you trust him, Headmaster?"

"With my life."

"Then, yes, you can count on me."

"Very well, then. You may go back to your dormitory."

Finally, Lily left the office.

Thankfully, everyone was already asleep when she got to the common room, so no questions were asked. She went straight to bed, and not even bothered to change into her pajamas. Dueling has been the most exhausting experience of her life, not only because it demanded a concentration she had never had, but also because it had been against Hector. The effort to avoid crying, or lowering her wand and being hit by a jinx, was too great. It had been so exhausting she didn't even feel her head fall to her pillow as she dived into the deepest sleep.

Professor Sprout announced her detention on the next morning, during History of Magic class. She and Hector would help Hagrid with something, after the holidays.

Fred and George didn't seem angry, or disappointed. In fact, they seemed worried when she got to the courtyard and sat between them to talk. The twins placed their arms around her shoulders and looked down at her. There was only silence for a moment, and then one of the twins thought of what to say.

"You know, if you wanted to jinx the boy, you should have asked us."

"I didn't want to jinx him, Fred, I just wanted him to stop."

"I'm George. And I saw the jinxes you were casting at him, if you wanted him to stop, you should have used _expelliarmus._"

"Yeah, I mean, you were casting all sorts of minor jinxes we see in the books from Flourish and Bottoms."

"But I never really meant to harm him, I just wanted him to stop. And I never heard about _expelliarmus._" Lily looked at Fred, a wee bit annoyed that he didn't understand that she would never hurt a friend.

"It's easy. Use it next time. Look, I'll show you the movement." George took his wand out of his pocket and made a simple movement. Lily repeated it without a wand a few times, moving her lips. There was no harm on learning to disarm an attacker, after all. "Anyway, I heard professor Flitwick say to McGonagall you and your friend might grow up to be great duelists. You did great for a first year."

A soft smile appeared in Lily's lips when she heard that. But then it disappeared when Fred and George moved quickly to look up. Snape was walking in their direction.

"What's he doing here?" Fred's voice was a low hiss.

"Maybe came here to give us another detention. He took five points from Ron this morning, for defending himself against Malfoy." George's tone was identical to his twin's

"That's horrible." Lily muttered to herself, considering the hypothesis of asking Snape to give the five points back somehow.

"Boyd!" Snape growled "follow me."

Lily had never seen him so angry, so she got up and followed the Potions master, trying to ignore Fred and George muttering a long list of bad names. Any other day, Snape would have given him a month of detentions, but not on that day. He was, in fact, doing lots of things he wouldn't do on any other day. He had never touched Lily, but now he had one hand on her back to push her forwards so she walked faster through the corridors and down the stairs to the dungeon.

"Sit. Down." he hissed, making her sit on the chair in front of his desk. He sat on the chair opposite to hers and looked at Lily. "What were you thinking? You could have been expelled last night."

"I wasn't… thinking." Somehow, that felt even worse than the actual fight.

"Of course you weren't. Anyone with half a brain would realise that duelling in the middle of the Great Hall, in front of all the students and teachers reunited, is the quickest way of being sent home."

"He raised his wand first, professor. I didn't know how to disarm him, so I just started to shout every spell I remembered at the moment."

"You risked everything because of a stupid fight. What was the worst that could have happened? That boy couldn't really cause any harm." Lily opened her mouth to say something, but Snape lifted his index finger and she remained silent. "I thought you had a brain, that you had the capability to think, different than most. Don't prove me wrong." Snape looked so deep into her eyes that she couldn't help but hear again Dumbledore's words. She was not to spoil their relationship, it could be Snape's last hope. Lily sighed.

"I won't. I know how stupid it was. I just didn't want his jinxes to hit me, or I would never forgive him."

"Lily, look at me." Snape had his usual low voice back. "I trust you. I need your help. I know I'm not telling you much, I realise how annoying this is, but I am only doing so because I have to. I can't count on the rest of the staff, and I can't watch Potter myself. You have to be at Hogwarts, you can't waste time with all this childish drama. If you have an issue with a friend, talk to them, never raise your wand." Again, Snape was doing many things he wouldn't have done in a normal day. In spite of giving Lily advice all the time, he had never talked to her like that, like he truly cared.

Lily realised, finally, that what was happening inside Hogwarts was way more serious than she had thought. Whatever that dog was hiding, it was potentially dangerous. Not dangerous for children, but for adult wizards too.

"It won't happen again." She ensured, and saw Snape's body relax.

"However" he started, now talking calmly "I must state that I was surprised at your skills with a wand. Not many witches and wizards at you age could successfully cast the jinxes you did."

"It is nothing to be happy about. Jinxes are still dark magic."

"If you can cast jinxes, you can cast charms and transfiguration spells."

"I can do charms, but when it comes to transfiguration… well, McGonagall hasn't been giving me any points recently, even with Susan's help."

"Practice more."

Lily nodded and looked away, recalling the idea of asking about Ron's points. It had been really unfair to him, after all.

"Why did you take points from Gryffindor today? I heard Ron was defending himself from Malfoy."

"Still, fighting is against the school rules."

"You clearly have never been bullied."

For a moment, Snape looked at Lily as if he would love to prove her wrong, but kept silent. _Had_ he been bullied?

"I will want to talk again in a few days. Keep both eyes open for Potter and Weasley. Now go. And don't get expelled."


	13. Chapter 13

**A Special Christmas**

Lily went straight to the library, where she knew Ron, Harry and Hermione would be, researching for Nicolas Flamel.

They were sitting around a desk, Hermione had her nose only a few inches from a heavy, dusty book, and hept placing her bushy hair behind her ear. She jumped when Lily sat down beside her, but conceived a faint smile at the ginger girl.

"Hello, Lily."

Lily smiled at her, and then looked at Ron. "I tried to talk Snape into giving back your house points. It was useless, of course."

"I'm surprised that he didn't take any of your house points for saying anything like that." Ron widened his eyes. Beside him, Harry looked furious at the very mention of Snape's name, and Hermione sank her face closer to the book, as if avoiding saying anything that would spoil her concentration.

"How come you don't know it? Snape doesn't take unnecessary points from me."

"Oh, yes, you're his favourite student. Bet he told you everything about what's hidden under Fluffy."

"Of course not! That is offensive, really. If I knew, do you really think I would let you keep researching, fruitlessly? Doesn't matter if I like Snape, I still hate the way he treats people."

"Which makes me wonder why do you like him." Hermione's voice came slightly muffled by the book, which was millimeters away from her mouth.

"I already told you dozens of times."

"Seriously, Lily, he is trying to steal something from Hogwarts!" Argued Harry. Harry was, by far, the one who hated Snape the most, and also the one most hated by Snape.

"I really don't think it's him. And I won't believe it until there is proof, hard evidence. Until then, I trust him and, more importantly, Dumbledore trusts him." Ron looked unable to believe what he had just heard. "I asked him yesterday. He told me, with this words 'I trust Snape with my life'"

"Doesn't change the fact that he might be wrong." Harry folded his arms and looked at Lily.

"Hardly. Anyway, I managed to confirm that, as we thought, Fluffy is guarding a magical item. I believe it probably has magical properties, and that it is likely to be the only one of it's kind, otherwise no one would risk trying to break into Gringotts."

"Good thinking, Lily. I'm sure we will be able to find something useful in books about magical artefacts." Hermione raised from the book, as if coming back to life and went to the shelves to pick a new one, but by the time she left the chair, the lunch time was announced.

All the Hufflepuffs but Cedric and Susan seemed furious at Lily, and she felt that the only reason why they were still talking to her was that she hadn't lost her position as future beater for the Quidditch team. Also, the fact that she was spending loads of time in the library made her housemates think she was studying hard to compensate the fifty points she had lost. It wasn't a complete lie, she _was _studying, but she did it at the common room and not at the library.

The time she spent reading book after book were very good for Lily for many reasons, but the most important of them was that it took her thoughts away from Hector. Ever since the duel, Hector was looking at Lily the same way he did before their trip to Hogwarts, but dared not talk to her. Lily herself had decided to listen to Cedric's advice give it until the end of the holidays to speak to him again, so there would be time to heal all the emotional wounds.

Snape wouldn't say a word to her about who was Nicolas Flamel, but wouldn't discourage her to research after explanations either. His greatest concern was that Harry wouldn't try to get past Fluffy.

Fred and George were spending loads of time with Lily, and had taken the responsibility for her training as a future beater. They kept her on a broomstick and threw things around every day on early evenings. They told her that Oliver Wood wasn't happy about that, but had decided not to forbid her training, as Fred and George had given him the excuse that Lily was their favourite cousin ("I am your only cousin!", she had said). She wouldn't complain, as their lessons were much more fun than the ones coming from her own housemates.

"You can't take your eyes from the Bludgers, Lily!" yelled Fred, speeding up his broom beside her.

"Yes, otherwise someone might get hit" George agreed, dodging away from a Bludger, on the first time they trained with the real balls - it had required a special letter from both McGonagall and Sprout for Madam Hooch to allow them to use the Bludgers - and they were giving Lily a rough time. She wasn't used to beat objects that seemed to _think_. But she felt more confident after that.

When the Hogwarts train departed back to London, the Hufflepuff basement suddenly felt really, really lonely. Not a single housemate had signed to stay for Christmas, and Lily had no one to talk to. Harry and Ron spent most of their time in the Gryffindor tower and, although Lily knew the password, she dared not face the possibility of being caught by McGonagall and lose Hufflepuff another fifty points. Snape didn't mind having her as company in his office, as long as she stayed in silence studying while he brewed potions, and she did enjoy that, but the dungeons were freezing cold and Snape wouldn't light a fire, so Lily only went there to spend a few hours whenever she reported to the Potions Master, which happened only once or twice, since the research seemed to be the last thing in Ron's and Harry's mind.

Her first hours alone had been boring beyond imagination. She even made professor Snape a beautiful drawing of and owl and enchanted it to fly around on the paper, but it didn't take as long as she had wished it to, even though one of the paintings in the common room had to explain the correct spell a dozen times before she finally got it.

On the first night, Lily realised that if she didn't interact with her house ghost, the holidays would be deeply unhappy. Luckily, the Fat Friar turned up to be, after all, great at transfiguration, because as part of the clergy he had good practice on turning water into wine. Of course he couldn't transfigure anything as a ghost, but helped Lily practice on evenings before going to sleep. And since she didn't have a time to wake up, she kept listening to the ghost's advises until he told her to go to sleep - and the friar let her stay awake until past two in the morning - so by Christmas Eve, less than forty eight hours after the Hogwarts Express departure, Lily herself was able to change water into wine with her eyes closed. "Congratulations, young lass!", the Fat Friar had said "Next night, we will try and teach you to transfigure other things!". Lily had smiled from ear to ear at her house ghost.

Christmas morning came and Lily woke up slightly later than she was allowed. In fact, she was awaken by a sharp pain on her nose.

"Helga! What are you doing?" Her barn owl was sitting proudly on the edge of the pillow. Helga turned her head to the right, to Lily's feet, and hooted. Lily looked down, rubbing her nose, and saw a small pile of presents. "Uh! Presents!"

Since she was spending Christmas alone, Lily wasn't expecting any presents, at least until after the holidays when her mother would be back from Romania, but apparently her mother had been able to send the owl. The girl sat up and tied her messy curls in a bun to see what she had for Christmas.

"_Merry Christmas, Lily! I hope you are having a good time at Hogwarts. I'm sorry about Hector, I'm sure you will make peace soon." _Said Violet's card, which was tied to a green parcel. Lily was sure she must have sent Helga before she heard about the duel.

Inside the parcel there were two items. First, a thin gold bracelet, with an intricate pattern which reminded her of fish scales, and in the middle, holding the two edges of the bracelet with it's minusculus paws, there was a small black stone, carved to look like a tiny, delicate badger, no larger than a thumb nail. There was a note tied to it. "_The bracelet is large, but it will shrink to your wrist size the moment you put it on, and the badger will bite you if there is dark magic working around you. Won't hurt much, I hope."_ It was written in her mother's handwriting. Lily didn't think she would witness any dark magic at school, but she put the bracelet on anyway. It immediately shrunk to the correct size.

The other item in the package was thick, hand-knitted sweater in a deep shade of pink. It also came with a note, this one in an unknown handwriting. "_Dear Lily, I hope you like this sweater I made for you. I didn't know which colour is your favourite, so I went for pink. Love, Molly Weasley." _Lily thought it was very sweet of her aunt to think of sending her a Christmas present, even though they had only met once. She smiled at the thought of Molly weasley shouting orders at Ron and the twins while knitting.

The second parcel was bright red, and it was from Rachel. No note outside, which informed Lily that her friend's mother was a little angry at her. The content of the parcel was a box filled with muggle sweets and a cake - made by Rachel herself - decorated for Christmas. Usually it was Lily who decorated the cakes, and she was very good at it, but Rachel had made a fairly good job. But inside the parcel, there was a letter from Hector.

"_Lily, _

_I am sorry. I have been an idiot. I know I shouldn't be jealous, I know I shouldn't stop you from staying with your family, I know I shouldn't stay between you and new friendships. I trust you, I know you wouldn't betray me. It's just that it has been a huge change all of a sudden, and seeing you grow distant from me wasn't easy. You are my best friend, my sister, really, and - well, the fact that you are a half blood and I am just part of all of this by pure chance is scary for me. It was just by pure luck that I am a wizard, and you were supposed to be a witch from the beginning. You know- it's pure luck that we are still part of each other's life, and it's uncomfortable for me to think about it. But I almost ruined our friendship (If I haven't ruined it for real) and I'm sorry. I should never, never, have threatened to attack you on the Great Hall._

_Mom was furious at me after the letter she got from Hogwarts, says I shouldn't use a blessing as a weapon, especially towards family, and she's right. And she says your mom is furious too, but decided to wait until after Christmas to send something she called a _Howler_. I don't know what a Howler is but it sounds awful, so get ready. Anyway, I'm really sorry. I hope we are still friends._

_Merry Christmas, Lily._

_Hector"_

Lily wiped her teary eyes on her pajamas' sleeve, but she realized it was useless once tears overflowed from her eyes and a burning sensation started in her throat, as if there was a knot around her neck. She had not been wrong, Hector still wanted to be her friend, everything would be alright be the time he came back to school. It was a good thing that no one else from Hufflepuff had remained in school, especially in the first-year-girl's dormitory, so there would be no one to witness her crying over the letter. Once her tears finally ceased, she took a bit of parchment and a quill from her trunk and looked at Helga.

"Are you feeling alright for the journey back?" The barn owl hooted in response, as if offended by the lack of trust. "Sorry, but I had to ask. It's cold outside." Answered Lily, as she used her copy of the History of Magic textbook as a desk to write back to Hector. She didn't spare ink in her own apologies, and promised to never let him down again. When the letter was well tied to Helga's scaly legs, Lily remembered Snape's present. "Can you deliver that to professor Snape firstwise?" Helga hotted affectionately and took the drawing in her beak. The owl jumped off the window to the snowy school grounds and took off to the sky.

The last parcel, a small brown one, didn't have a note along with it. It was a single Chocolate Frog. Lily opened it and put the sweet in her mouth, thankful that the Croakoa that kept the sweet acting as a real frog stopped being effective when it came in contact with saliva. She didn't actually collect Chocolate Frog Cards, but Ron did, and she read the one that came with her Christmas Present, just out of curiosity. When she did, she jumped to her feet and changed into proper clothes and put her new pink sweater over two long sleeved shirts to keep the chill out. Then, she ran out of the dormitory, and crawled through the passage from the common room, leaving the card lying on her bed. It read:

_ALBUS DUMBLEDORE_

_CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS_

_Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and ten-pin bowling._

Alchemy. She finally had a clue. Lily ran through the school corridors to the library, hoping to bump into Harry or Ron in the way, but they were probably asleep. She ran so fast that she barely noticed how cold it was outside her common room, at least until she reached the library. She went straight to the Alchemy section and picked all the books that could, despite of Madam Pince's gaze which indicated that she would hex Lily if she got another book.

She didn't bother to sit down and her fingers were shaky as she turned the pages, looking for Flamel's or Dumbledore's name. It wasn't until the last book that she got a small quote, as if the library itself was trying to hide information.

_The Philosopher's Stone, known to be the holy grail of Alchemy, is the legendary substance which carries the astonishing power of transforming any metal into pure gold - something known to be impossible by any other means -. It also produces the Elixir of Life, a potion that will make the drinker immortal. Throughout history, the Philosopher's Stone was the main concern of alchemy students, but the only person to ever create a functional one was Nicolas Flamel, born before 1327 and still alive to this day._

Lily closed the book furiously, ignoring madam Pince's protests. That was it. Fluffy was guarding the Philosopher's Stone, and someone was trying to steal it. Someone was trying to steal the only mean of achieving eternal life, and Snape knew it from the beginning. Why had he not done anything? Why was Lily the one spying on her friends? Dumbledore should be the one investigating it!

She sped up towards Snape's dungeon, and angrily apologised to professor McGonagall on her way when she nearly knocked her over a statue. She was sure she had lost a point from Hufflepuff, but didn't bother much. What was a point near fifty? And what on earth did it change when someone was trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone? Filch and Mrs. Norris also cursed at her - of course Mrs. Norris just hissed - and were both equally ignored.

Snape jumped on his armchair when Lily burst through the door.

"Are you out of your mind?" He obviously was shaken, despite of his attempt to sound as dry as always.

"Muffle the door. Cast a charm, anything." Lily's voice came out a screech. Snape scowled at her, but did as she asked and waved his wand at the door. Only then, Lily crashed on the armchair across the desk, dizzy from being so insanely nervous. "The Philosopher's Stone?"

Snape's countenance remained cold, as if Lily was a pupil asking a stupid question in the middle of a very important lesson.

"You found out." It sounded more like an statement rather than a question.

"I got a Chocolate Frog for Christmas. Dumbledore's card. Went straight to the Alchemy sessions." when Snape's expression didn't change again, Lily realized something. It was a single chocolate frog, in a parcel without a note. Someone was trying to tell her something, and the only one who knew about her research was Snape. "Y-you were the one who sent it to me." She muttered, more to herself than to the potions master.

"I don't have the faintest idea what you are talking about," he replied, but his voice sounded purposely fake "however, now that you know, let's make one thing perfectly clear: no one must know. I don't care how many times Potter asks, you are to tell him… whatever it is you tell him when he asks why you are coming here. I will pretend to give you detentions, if it's required."

"I always say you are giving me extra lessons. My mom sells potions, I usually tell them I want to help her." Snape had started to nod, but stopped to analyze the part where Lily said her mom was selling potions.

"Does she?"

"Yes. Brews and delivers." for a split second, Snape raised his eyebrows. Then he told Lily she was released, but before actually leaving, she saw the drawing of a beautifully realistic owl that flew in circles through the parchment in which it was drawn. The ginger girl smiled from ear to ear at the realization that Professor Snape had attached it to the wall in his office. "Merry Christmas, professor."

Snape turned his head quickly at her, perhaps a little confused, and then followed her bright gray eyes to see that she was looking at the piece of parchment brought to him this morning by a barn owl. He had carefully casted a permanent sticking charm on it, and a charm to protect it from potions that could spill around. Of course he had been aware that this was from Lily, but also hoped that she wouldn't see it in the corner of the room.

"Merry Christmas, Boyd."

Lily held back the idea of asking Snape if he wanted to spend Christmas with her and left to the Great Hall. For some reason, she felt like Snape hadn't spent Christmas with anyone in a while.

Fred, George, Harry, Percy and Ron were going down to the Great Hall when Lily called for them in her way back from the Dungeons.

"Little cousin!" Fred and George greeted her at the same time, and then lowered their eyes to her pink sweater and grinned. "You got one too! Now you are officially part of the Weasley family!"

A warmness filled the girl's heart when she heard that. _Family._ She was spending Christmas with her cousins, she had made peace with Hector, even Snape had wished her a Merry Christmas. She smiled, and felt herself blush.

"Merry Christmas!" She said, and jumped to hug her twin cousins. It was, perhaps, the warmest hug she had ever received, or given, in her life. For a single moment, the emptiness in her heart, which had persecuted her ever since her father died - felt slightly smaller.

Ron's embrace wasn't just as warm, but still affectionate. Percy seemed not to care much, and hugged Lily out of politeness rather than actual affection, or perhaps it was the fact that he seemed too uncomfortable in his own sweater. Last of all was Harry. They didn't hug, but exchanged a smile and wished each other a happy Christmas. Then, they finally proceeded on their way to the Great Hall.

Lily had never had such a Christmas dinner, and that was saying a lot since both Rachel and Violet were amazing cookers.

A hundred fat, roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of chipolatas; tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce - and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table. These fantastic party favors were nothing like the Muggle ones, as Lily found out when she watched Harry pull one of them with Fred and it didn't just bang, it went off with a blast like a cannon and engulfed them all in a cloud of blue smoke, while from the inside exploded a rear admiral's hat and several live, white mice. The girl herself pulled two with George. First, she got a miniature unicorn that actually moved and whinnied. Second, she got a little paper fish which would shout out loud whatever the one who held it was feeling. She felt a little awkward when the little fish kept yelling "_Happy, happy, happy!"_

Up at the High Table, Dumbledore had swapped his pointed wizard's hat for a flowered bonnet, and was chuckling merrily at a joke Professor Flitwick had just read him. Hagrid's nose looked like a big, red potato as he called for more wine, finally kissing Professor McGonagall on the cheek by the time they were having the Christmas puddings. To Lily's complete shock, the Transfiguration Master simply giggled and blushed.

They finally left the Great Hall and went outside, now without Percy, to a furious snowball fight. Lily felt herself freeze to the ground when one of her balls hit Professor Flitwick's head, but instead of taking another twenty points from her, he simply bewitched about ten snowballs to hit her in sequence, leading Fred and George to fall on their backs, laughing.

Soaked and cold, all of them left to Gryffindor common room - Professor McGonagall had allowed Lily to go with them since they were relatives - to sit by the fire and watch a wizard chess match between Ron and Harry. Ron was great, and Harry broke in his new chess set by losing spectacularly to Lily's cousin, although she suspected the defeat might not have been so disastrous if Harry didn't listen to Percy, who was clearly a terrible player. After that, they all had a meal of turkey sandwiches and Christmas cake and Lily sat with Ron and Harry to watch Percy chase Fred and George all around the tower because the twins had stolen his prefect badge.

"Everyone knows you are a prefect, Percy, you keep repeating it every ten minutes." Lily laughed, leaning closer to the fire.

"Every two minutes, if you live with him." Ron whispered, and they giggled.

When they all finally went to bed, Lily left the Gryffindor tower to find her way back to the Hufflepuff basement. The staircases were lit only by moonlight, so she had to find the way with her hands, and halfway down her way, she had the funny feeling that there was someone creeping in the darkness behind her, but whoever it was, they disappeared when she looked back. At first, she thought it to be Peeves the Poltergeist, but changed her mind when she started hearing steps behind her, and her heart rate increased to the point where she could barely listen to her own thoughts. Should she touch the little paper fish in her pocket, it would yell "_Panic! Panic!"_. The miniature unicorn on her shoulder moved uncomfortably to recover his balance when she started walking faster. The steps were still there, somewhere behind her, just behind the edge of her vision range.

All of a sudden, there was a sharp pain on her right wrist, and for a split second, Lily thought about looking at it, but then she remembered. That was the wrist where she had her bracelet. Unable to think of anything else, the girl ran at full speed, trying to get her wand. Where could she go? The common room would be empty, except for the Fat Frier if she was lucky, there was nothing anyone could do for her if she was caught by whoever was behind her. The kitchens seemed like a good idea, but Lily had no idea if someone actually worked in the kitchens. An idea popped into her mind. The dungeons. It would take a little longer to get there, but she was a hundred percent sure that Snape slept there. She pushed her legs to carry her on through the hallways, ignoring the burning sensation in her lungs. I am almost there, she kept saying to herself, trying to ignore the thought of what would happen to her if the invisible steps got to her before she could get to the dungeons. The badger on her wrist kept biting her, and Lily was sure there was blood starting to drop.

When she finally got to the final staircase before reaching the dungeons, Lily heard the steps walk away slowly, and at the same time the badger stopped biting her. She felt relief take over her, but just by a split second, as she realized she couldn't go back, or she would meet whoever it was. The girl hurried to get to Snape's room, which was behind his office - well, at least she had seen the tip of a bed there, when the door was open. She knocked, loudly.

Not half a minute after that, Snape opened the door and looked around, obviously expecting an adult to be there. Only then, he looked down and seemed slightly surprised to see Lily. His surprised didn't last long, however, because when the girl finally realised she was safe, all the accumulated panic was released and she started crying like a little baby. Her vision was truly dark, and the blood had left her legs.

Snape pulled her inside his bedroom, where, judging by the temperature, the fireplace was lit. The professor made her sit on the edge of the bed. Then he left for a moment, and came back to sit beside her.

"Take this. It's a calming draught. Hold that, yes, that's it. Take it, just swallow it quickly, it's best if you don't keep it in your mouth. Good." He instructed and she followed each of his commands, trying to focus and stop crying. She hated crying out of fear. The draught worked faster than she thought, and soon her heart rate was back to normal, and her blood had stopped pumping on her ears. She managed to see what was happening around her again. It wasn't easy to hold back a giggle when Lily noticed that Snape was wearing striped pajamas. "Now" he started, looking down at her "take a deep breath and tell me what happened."

"Someone… or something… was following me. I was heading to the Hufflepuff common room, but I started hearing someone behind me. Whenever I turned, I couldn't see anyone, but there was something there, there was!" She screeched, nervously, and showed her wrist to professor Snape. "Mom sent me this for Christmas. It bites when there is dark magic working nearby. Look what it did to my wrist!" It was actually worse than she had expected. There were thin trails of blood all the way from her wrist to her nails.

Snape got to his feet, and then sat again and held Lily's arm closer to his face, looking at the bracelet, at the badger, and at the blood stains on the girl's pale skin. He casted a spell at the badger, but the stone animal didn't react. Then, he used another spell, a jinx that made a table at the other side of the room move as if it was a very angry bull. The badger bit Lily again and she held back a painful expression.

"It seems to me that you witnessed something rather - odd - happening around the castle." Snape seemed to choose his words carefully. "Lily, where did you hear the steps?"

"I was just leaving the Gryffindor tower when they started. I didn't pay much attention at first… it started as a presence behind me, thought it could be Peeves… but Peeves is always floating, never walking. And he usually sings and throws things at us, rather than creeping in the dark to scare people. Then I felt the badger bite me and started running. I thought… I didn't know who it was, and what they could do, and since there is no one in the Hufflepuff common room, I thought it was safer to run to the dungeons."

"Peeves is a poltergeist. There is no dark magic about that, and this amulet seems to be working properly. I think, Lily, that you did well on coming here instead of taking your chances against… whoever it was. Now, come here, you can have some tea while I get a potion to cure those bites."

Lily grinned softly and nodded. Snape conjured a cup and transfigured some water into ginger tea, slightly sweetened with honey. The potions master left to his office and came back with a small flask of potion, with a dropper, and dropped some of the flask's content over the small wound, which ceased the bleeding immediately.

"Thank you, Professor."

"Now, come along, You can finish your tea in the way to your common room. I will make sure that the ghost stays with you tonight, and then I will search the school after whatever dark magic there might be. In fact, I will talk to Quirrell, since it's his area of expertise."

This was, undoubtedly, one more of Snape's demonstration of caring and concern for the girl. She followed him through the staircases, feeling perfectly safe now. In fact, she felt a little bit silly for running to a teacher at the bare sign of… well, nothing, really. Still, the stone badger had bitten her several times, Snape had seen the blood himself. Lily drank all her tea in a second at the thought that the man was thinking she had made it up.

Finally, they reached the floor beneath the great halls, near the kitchens. Lily was looking at the floor, nervously, ever since she had finished the tea, halfway there. Meanwhile Snape summoned the Fat Friar, the girl thought of what she was going to say. She waited for the ghost to pass through the wall, and turned back to Snape.

"Professor… you do believe me, right?" she looked down at her thumb nails, waiting for an answer. Snape looked puzzled for a split second.

"I saw what your badger did to you, there is no evidence against your word." Lily nodded, and he folded his arms across his chest while Lily knocked on the barrels and crawled through the passageway to meet the Fat Friar at the other side of the passage. She had the impression of hearing Snape mutter something about her house being too related to dirt, and suppressed the urge to answer something about Slytherin, the house related to snakes.

"Oh, my dear girl, my poor girl!" The Fat Friar started as soon as Lily reached the other side "don't you worry, my dear, you are absolutely safe here. No outsiders ever saw the Hufflepuff common room."

The girl let herself fall on the sofa closer to the fireplace, and took the little fish out of her pocket. "_Insecurity!"_ Shouted the fish.

"Oh, shut up!" Said Lily, and placed it on the floor. Then she took the unicorn from her shoulder, where it was tangling her hair, and did the same. The horned horse opened its minuscule mouth and, unexpectedly, reproduced the steps Lily had heard behind her.

The girl stood up and reached for the toy. Her house ghost floated closer to it as well.

"Marvelous! This is a memory statue! It will remember things that were said, and repeat them to their owner! They are very uncommon!"

"A memory statue? Like… like a recorder?"

"A recorder? What on earth would that be?"

Then, Lily remembered two things about the Fat Friar. First, he had been dead for centuries. Second, he was a wizard.

"Well… it's a small box muggles use to record sound." She explained, as simply as she could. The Friar was now wearing a vague expression, and had one silvery finger on his chin.

"Oh, those muggles! Very well. Now, yesterday, you transfigured water into wine. Can you transfigure- let's see- that mug into a mice, and then back again?" His transparent index was now pointing at a mug on a table near the door to the boys dormitory.

It took a while, and several attempts, but Lily was able to do what the ghost has instructed. She felt like, after all those years, the Friar was truly enjoying being able to pass on some of his knowledge.

It was way past midnight when the Hufflepuff ghost made Lily go to her dormitory, where she placed both the little fish and the memory statue on the bedside table. The little unicorn curled around itself and seemed to fall asleep. Lily, on the other hand, laid awaken for a while, until she convinced herself that she wouldn't wake up to another bite on her wrist, or worse, to someone cursing her in her own bed.

The next day, at the Great Hall, Lily told Harry and Ron everything about last night.

"You probably just heard Harry. He's got an invisibility cloak now." Said Ron.

"No. I didn't see you, Lily, it was something else."

"Of course it was. It was dark magic, my badger kept biting me. Professor Snape agrees that there was something wrong, He went patrolling the corridors after he left me in the common room."

"Oh. That explains Filch." Muttered Harry.

"Filch?"

Then Harry proceeded to tell her about his adventures last night with his invisibility cloak in the restricted session in the library, and with a mirror which showed his family. Ron wanted to go and see it tonight, and Lily convinced them to let her come along. It was easy to convince McGonagall to let her sleep in the Gryffindor common room just for that night, under the excuse that she would feel safer after last night events.

Therefore, later on that night, Lily, Ron and Harry left the Gryffindor tower and moved slowly under the invisibility cloak, while Harry tried to find his way back into the hidden room. Ron kept complaining about the cold - and it was freezing, really - but both Harry and Lily convinced him to keep going.

"There it is!" Harry whispered at the sight of a suited armour. There was a door right next to it, and they all went inside.

It looked like an unused classroom, with desks and chairs, but the most impressive item was the mirror. It was magnificent, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame and standing over two clawed feet. There was an inscription carved on the top: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. Lily kept looking at the inscription, and then down at the mirror. She widened her eyes.

There, standing inside the mirror, was her father, smiling and waving at her. And near him, there was her mother, holding hands with an unknown handsome man, who was smiling. And then there was Rachel, right behind them, and Hector, and Fred, and George, and…

"Ron, that's you!" She whispered.

"Of course it's me, it's a mirror!"

"But not just you. I see… i see my dad, and mom, and Hector, aunt Rachel, Fred, George, Percy, your mother… that… those must be your father and your brothers. Oh, and there's Ginny!"

"No! Can't you see, Lily? My parents! All my family is there" Harry was shocked, moving in front of the mirror and trying to see whatever Lily was looking at.

"I'm just telling what I see!"

"But… how can you see your family, and I see mine?"

"Well, maybe the mirror shows people's families." The girl guessed. "Hey, Ron, stand in front of it."

The red haired boy moved to look into the mirror, and stared transfixed at his image.

"Look at me!" he said.

"Can you see all your family standing around you?"

"No - I'm alone - but I'm different - I look older - and I'm head boy!"

"What?"

"I am - I'm wearing the badge like Bill used to - and I'm holding the house cup and the Quidditch cup - I'm Quidditch captain, too.

Ron tore his eyes away from this splendid sight to look excitedly at Harry. "Do you think this mirror shows the future?"

"How can it? All my family are dead -" said Harry.

"And so is my father" Lily completed, but didn't think they heard her, as they were now fighting to see who would look next. She wanted to have a last look too, but something told her not to. That image - her father- made her feel an unwanted sort of sadness. Then, instead, she looked at the words carved on the frame again. Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. Lily made sure to memorize those words.

Then, they heard a noise outside and quickly moved to the cloak. Ron threw it back over all the three of them right when the luminous eyes of Mrs. Norris came round the door. They stood quite still, holding their breaths, all of them thinking the same thing - did the cloak work on cats? Finally, after what seemed like an age, Filch's cat turned and left.

"This isn't safe - she might have gone for Filch, I bet she heard us. Come on."

Ron pulled both of them by their wrists, still under the cloak, and went back to the Gryffindor tower. Lily laid down on the carpet next to the fireplace and got a cushion from one armchair to use as a pillow. Ron and Harry went up the stairs to their dormitory, and Lily was left alone to think about her sight in the mirror. Why had she seen her father? Who was that unknown man holding her mother's hand? She tried to picture him in her mind. Handsome, with long hair - but what did his face look like? If she could remember, then maybe she could draw it and ask her mother. However, she forgot about that last thought when she fell asleep.

There was still snow outside when the next morning arrived, and Lily decided to go back to her cosy common room after breakfast. There, next to the fire and to the moaning cactus, Lily could think about the words on the mirror. Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. She took her repeating statue from her pocket and said the words out loud. The little unicorn repeated them, Lily's voice coming out of the statue's mouth. She made it repeat it, and repeat it, and repeat it one more time. Those were no real words, she thought.

It wasn't until she went to the bathroom that she understood everything. She was washing her hair in the large stone bathtub, when a reflection caught her eye. The water was sufficiently still to see the inscription carved on one of the walls, which wrote "keep the floor dry"… only it was reflected and, therefore, reversed. "Yrd roolf eht peek", it read. As soon as she had her hair clean and dry again, Lily ran back to her common room and took the unicorn, which had been left next to the fireplace.

"Repeat the words I said earlier… but backwards."

"I show not your face but your heart's desire." Said her own voice, coming from the unicorn's mouth.

Her heart's desire. What she wanted the most, her most desperate desire, was her family. Her father, her mother, Hector, her cousins… and whoever that man could be. Perhaps that man was the personalization of someone to take care of her like Roger used to. And on that moment, looking through the window at the snow covering the school grounds, Lily realized something. Now that she knew of her desire, she had never felt so empty.

She didn't leave her bed for the whole day, ignoring the fact that she should tell Ron and Harry about what she had found out. She didn't want to see George or Fred. She didn't want to see Professor Snape. She even ignored the Howler her mother sent with Helga, which had arrived early on evening, even though the red letter had shouted at her. All she had in mind was how much she wanted to be her own reflection in the mirror.

Then, the next day came and she felt the same way.

"No, it can't stay like this. I must leave this bed, whether I want it or not!" She commanded herself, exasperated at her own situation.

No matter how much she thought about that image, it didn't make it closer to reality. There was nothing real about a reflection, especially about a reflection that showed what people wanted, and not what people were. 'That mirror is dangerous', she thought, and finally left the bed.


	14. Chapter 14

Detention With Hagrid

Lily spent the rest of the holidays focusing on two things. First was perfecting her learnings in transfiguration. Second was spending time with Fred and George, who turned out to be Lily's favorite cousins too. They showed Lily all the secret passages known to them, and taught her all about wizarding pranks, especially the ones related to dungbombs. They comforted Lily with their jokes when she shared about the nightmares she was having, reliving the moment when her father had been hit by a bus.

Then, on the day when the Hogwarts express came back from London, Lily stood by the castle's front door to wait for Hector. When the crowd of students came through the door, She stood in the tip of her toes and stretched her neck as much as she could until she spotted the tall, thin boy with braided hair and large brown eyes, who seemed to look for her as well. Then, he saw her too and a smile widened on his face. Lily ran to him, her small body dodging everyone in the way.

She jumped over Hector and wrapped her arms around his neck, and felt him hug her back. The boy was way taller than her, even though he hadn't gone through that growth stage in which boys just stretch ten centimeters in less than a year. They just stayed there, in each other's arms, until professor Quirrell came and told them to walk inside ("i-it's t-too c-cold").

"Lily?"

"Yes?"

"Let's never fight like that again, right?"

"I promise."

They walked inside, holding hands, and went for a walk through the castle. Hector told her about his holidays, about how Rachel was mad at him for attacking Lily, and about how awkward it had been to spend Christmas alone.

Lily told him about what had happened on Christmas night, about the person following her and about the badger bites, and Snape. Hector scowled when she told him about the mirror of Erised, and about her vision in the reflection.

"I stumbled upon it about three weeks ago. I saw- well - us. Together again, in the library." said Hector.

"Well- I've been studying a lot recently, and intended to spend this last day of holiday doing something outside, but since it's the thing you want the most in the world, we can go to the library."

Hector rolled his eyes, but smiled at her and, giggling, they walked towards the library. When they passed by Flitwick, the head of Ravenclaw, he reminded them about their detention in a week, with Hagrid, at seven. Professor Sprout stopped them to say how glad she was that both had put aside their pride and apologized to each other. She made sure to remind Lily that those were the actions of a true Hufflepuff.

"You know, the Fat Friar taught me how to transfigure some things. I can turn water into wine with my eyes closed now."

"That's amazing, Lily! And I've been reading on potions and I think I finally understood the basics…"

"Well… Professor Dumbledore told me you were having trouble with potions because of Snape. I can help if you want - and I can help with Snape as well. He's not bad, you know?"

"He's great with the Slytherins… and you. Why a Hufflepuff, I wonder? Everyone knows Ravenclaws are the smart ones."

Lily elbowed his ribs and giggled.

"Might be, but when it comes to feelings, Hufflepuffs are a lot better."

"If you say so… Anyway, I do think we should go to the library. I mean, where else could we find anything about biting badger pendants and dark magic at Hogwarts?"

"That's true."

They didn't expect to find Ron and Harry at the library, reading, but Hermione's presence explained the surprise. She was going shelf after shelf, taking book after book about contemporaneous wizards, but got nothing, and was terribly disappointed at Harry and Ron's lack of effort to find who was Nicolas Flamel.

Lily felt a little guilty for not helping, but now she knew the truth, she just opened the books and pretended to look for information she knew wouldn't be there.

And then term began again and they all went back to scanning the books one by one for ten minutes during break. Lily and Harry nearly didn't have time because of Quidditch - Lily was now being trained with the rest of the team, although she wasn't officially in the team -. Hector usually sat to watch her practice, and so did Susan. They were getting along quite well. It was just a little hard to understand how they were able to sit at the stands when it was always raining. Lily herself wouldn't be there if she could afford to risk her future position.

Anthony Rickett, one of the Beaters, was on third year, and was always very nice to Lily when they were in the field. He liked to show her everything he already knew, and was always a pleasing presence, trying to cheer the team up even if the last time Hufflepuff had won a Quidditch House Cup was back in 1987. Heidi Macavoy, a beautiful second year blonde girl, was a Chaser and sometimes Lily couldn't keep her eyes from following the older girl's beautiful dark hair flying behind her. Heidi seemed to like Lily as well - especially because she would no longer be the youngest one in the team.

On the day when Lily would get her detention with Hector, she had to skip practice and tried hard to ignore Jeanne Kenyon's hard words and ensure him that she would not get a third detention on that year.

Therefore, by six thirty on that same Monday evening, Lily met Hector by the door and waited for Filch to take them to Hagrid's hut, on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. The caretaker kept muttering offensive stuff at them, and Mrs. Norris, the skeletal grey cat, looked at Hector and Lily in disapproval.

When they arrived, Hector was immediately knocked down by an immense figure, which Lily found out to be an oversized boarhound dog that seemed to be soaking Hector' face by leaking him.

"Oh, get o'er here, Fang! Leave the boy alone!" Hagrid's voice echoed like a thunder. If Lily didn't know how kind the man was, she would be scared. "Oh, hello, there! Didn't expect ye to be arriving so soon."

"It is exactly seven." Filch observed, looking at Hagrid with the exactly same judgemental face as Mrs. Norris. Then, he left Lily and Hector with the gamekeeper.

"Ahm… Hello, Hagrid!" Greeted Lily, with a smile. Hagrid grinned back at her, and then at Hector.

"Well, Ron told me about you! I knew yer mum as well, of course! Dear Violet. She and Lily always came down here. Inseparable, those two. You remind me of both of them. They looked like twins, of course."

Lily opened her mouth to ask about Lily Potter and her friendship with Violet, but failed to do so when Hagrid's voice overcame hers. "As you must expect, we are going into the woods today. Not too deep, o' course, just enough to pick ingredients for professor Snape."

"Ingredients?" Hector dared to ask.

"Nothing too hard, just some horned slugs, frogs, roots… but might take some time, so let's get going." He handed lamps to Lily and Hector and walked into the dark forest, being immediately followed by fang.

The kids exchanged concerned looks and then hurried to follow Hagrid, holding hands: no one wanted to stay far from him when they were in that forbidden place.

"Don't worry. There's nothing to fear as long as ye stay close to me and Fang. Ye know, most of the stuff living in the forest is just misunderstood, rather than dangerous." Said Hagrid, when they caught up to his pace. "Now, keep your lamps close to the ground and look for those things. If ye find something, take it and put it in this jar."

They nodded in the darkness and just kept following Hagrid. Lily felt as if the nerve terminations had doubled in her wrist, as she expected the little badger to bite her any moment. Every step they took, it got a little darker, as if the shadows were trying to eat whatever light they had brought with them. Now and then, one of them would spot a root, a blind worm, or a horned slug.

"Ye see, I'm sorry ye two got detention. Not for detention, really, but for fighting with friends. Were there in the hall the night it happened. Very sad to watch, really. I'm glad ye made peace." Hagrid's thundering voice was relaxing. It was reassuring to have him there, even though he was talking about such a delicate topic, therefore Hector and Lily just agreed.

"Sometimes we just need to really fight with our friends to see how connected we are. And I'm happy to see ye two realized it on time. Friendship - true friendship - is the most magical thing that can happen in Hogwarts, I reckon. I mean, look at Harry! Never had a friend in his life, and now he's all happy with Ron and Hermione. Nothing like being friends with a Weasley, hm?" Hagrid turned to look kindly at Lily. "No better family in our world, I tell ye. And some people call them blood traitors, can ye imagine?"

Lily was about to ask what on earth would a blood traitor be, but that thought was wiped from her mind when she saw the saddest thing one could see.

"It is a funny thing to have you and Harry around. It is just like having James Potter, Lily Evans and Violet Prewett back again––" Hagrid stopped speaking when his eyes caught the same sight as Lily's.

Right in front of them, there was the most beautiful animal Lily had ever seen. Its fur was pure white, whiter than snow, perhaps just as white as the full moon. Its hooves were gold and there was a long horn coming from its head. Only it was motionless, and a small pool of a silver-blue substance had formed under it's lifeless head. Lily's eyes became teary as she stared at the dead unicorn laying on the forest ground in front of her.

Hagrid was in just as much shock as she was as he knelt down to see the poor creature. Fang sniffed the pool of silvery blue liquid.

Hector seemed uneasy, and kept looking around, still holding Lily's hand.

"H-Hagrid" Lily started with her voice shaking "What happened to it?"

"I don't know." He said at once "Unicorns aren't easy to kill. Not even werewolves can do it."

Lily took a step further and knelt down herself. That was truly the most beautiful animal she had ever seen, but she was not looking at the unicorn, but at the liquid beneath its head. It was his blood, and there was a wound there - only that wound was huge and there was supposed to be a lot more of blood -

"Hagrid, whatever did this didn't just kill the unicorn" she said "they took its blood. Could it be a vam-" but her phrase was never completed, because for the second time in her life, Lily felt a sting on her wrist and jumped back to Hector.

"What is it, Lily?"

"We have to leave this place. Now. There's dark magic involved in this."

At the words 'Dark Magic', Hagrid stood up and hurried to guide the children back to the edge of the forest, where it would be safe. They were half walking, half running, nearly stumbling and falling over the roots sometimes, when the lamp lights weren't enough. When they were finally safe, Hagrid took a deep breath.

"I'll take ye to the castle. Better not go walking alone at this time."

Lily pretended to listen to Hagrid's monologue about unicorns, but was in fact looking around to see if whatever had killed the unicorn wouldn't just appear behind them like in a muggle horror movie. Nothing like that happened, of course, but for a split second, Lily thought she had seen something moving in the darkness. Like the shadow of a person with an oversized head, only moving unnaturally like a snake. It was gone before she could take a proper look, but the badger on the bracelet had bitten her again.

"Now" Hagrid's voice caught her attention when they got to the castle's doorstep. "Ye will take this to professor Snape's dungeon and then go straight to bed, alright? I'll go back and take a look at that poor thing in the forest, give it a proper burial, perhaps."

Lily opened her mouth to tell Hagrid to stay home, but realized it would be useless. That man wouldn't sleep until he had taken care of the unicorn's body. Hector nodded and the jar of ingredients was placed on his hands.

They walked into the castle and began to talk as soon as the door was closed.

"The badger bit me again right now. Whatever was down in the forest came back to the castle." Said Lily, looking back every two or three steps. Occasionally there would be a student from an upper year, but most people were already in the common rooms.

"Lily - you said something took the unicorn's blood" Hector's voice sounded like it did when a strange line of thought formed in his mind.

"Yes…?"

"Did you know unicorn blood is not used in potions?"

"Yes. Yes, I did. So what?"

"I've seen blood of nearly every creature in potions instructions, even Dragons. But not unicorn. And unicorns are extremely magical, and pure. You think their blood could be used in something like a love potion. But no. And if we don't put it in our potions, I doubt any creature would take it."

"What are you thinking, Hector?" Lily was getting a horrible cold feeling in her stomach. She had already understood what Hector was saying, but wanted him to finish just so she would be sure.

"I think the unicorn blood might be involved in some sort of dark magic." He finally said when they reached the dungeon.

Snape was already there, apparently reading and grading essays.

"Hector, you go ahead, I've got to talk to him." Lily whispered, feeling the blood leave her face. Hector nodded and handed her the jar. Then, he left.

"Professor?" Lily began, and Snape looked up at her.

"Yes?"

"These are the ingredients we found in the forest tonight. Unfortunately, our expedition was shortened because of this." Lily placed the jar on his desk, and then showed him her wrist. It wasn't bleeding like it had been on Christmas night, but was definitely reddened.

Snape got her arm and pulled it closer to his eyes.

"What happened?"

"We found a dead unicorn."

Snape didn't seem to care much.

"Well, it would be useful if you had gotten the horn and tail hair."

"Professor, someone had taken the unicorn's blood. And I think I saw them returning to the castle."

Snape stood up and began pacing around the room, asking questions which Lily tried to remember and answer.

"What did they look like?" He finally asked.

"It was- I only saw a shadow, it was too dark and whoever it was, they were clearly avoiding the light."

"Did it look human?"

"Well… yes, it sort of did. But it had a large head, and their movements made me think of a snake." She explained.

Snape looked like he had received a shock.

"Go to your dormitory, and stay there. Make sure your little friend does the same."

Snape left, his cloak floating behind him.


	15. Chapter 15

**Nicolas Flamel**

The night ended, and everything seemed to go back to normal on the next day. She had Potions on the first period, then Transfiguration on the second, and D.A.D.A, and finally double History of Magic. Everything was normal, and all the teachers gave homework - mostly essays - which would demand more time than Lily really had.

Then, the week proved itself to be just as ordinary, and Lily started to believe everything had truly gone back to normal.

One day, after Quidditch practice, however, Lily and the team received odd piece of news.

"Oy! Come down here!" Said Jeanne at the end of the practice. Lily dived quickly, although her broom, borrowed from school, was quite slow. "Anthony, you get that Bludger back before it beheads someone."

Anthony Rickett simply waved his wand and the bludger flew to his hand. Maxine O'Flaherty got the other one - she was at her seventh year, and would be leaving school next year along with Jeanne.

Soon, all the team was around their seeker, waiting to hear the news.

"Snape will referee our match against Gryffindor. He asked to do it himself."

There was a moment of uneasiness within the team. Anthony looked down at Lily, who was about two thirds his size, and grinned.

"Well, perhaps he's thinking of taking points from Gryffindor to favour our little new beater!" O'Flaherty looked from Lily to Anthony, and then back to the girl with a very offended expression - she felt uncomfortable at the idea that Anthony already thought of the first-year as their new beater.

The boy didn't even see O'Flaherty, as he messed Lily's hair. Lily shot a furious gaze at him.

"He's not _cheating_ for me." She said.

"Boyd, I would like you to sit on the bench on the game. I want everyone to see that you are not in the air. If Anthony can relate Snape to you, then the Slytherins can as well. I don't want anyone to harm our House name by suggesting we got a teacher cheating for us."

"He's not!" Lily started, but Jeanne raised his hand.

"Snape is not likely to do it. He must have some other reason. Still, I don't want anyone to think this about you. Sit on the bench."

"Right. Will do it." She agreed. Wouldn't be so bad. The bench was lower than the stands where students usually watched the games, but it shouldn't be a problem.

After the Gryffindor practices on the next day, Ron was furious at Lily because of Snape. She couldn't tell the truth and say that he would be refereeing because he wanted to keep Harry safe, so she just lowered her head. Hector pulled the girl away from her cousin. "Come on, let's go to the library, there's a potions essay.", he had told her, glaring daggers at Ron.

Hector didn't know Lily was helping Snape watch over Harry, nor was he aware of the Philosopher's Stone, but Lily had made it pretty clear that Snape wasn't a real threat.

They sat at one of the desks available in the library - lots of first years seemed to be having trouble with potions homework - and got started on their essays on types of caldrons. Lily herself didn't think there was enough on that matter to cover twelve inches of parchment ("that is longer than my wand!", she had said), but still, they managed to do it, although it required them to slightly enlarge their handwriting.

"So… should we write anything about those pure gold caldrons?"

"I suspect those aren't even usable for brewing, but honestly, I think we should cover anything we can." Hector answered, looking tense as he put his twelve inch wand at the side of the parchment. He needed at least three more lines.

"Can I borrow your wand to check on mine?"

"Sure. There you go".

"Oh, _got it_! Exactly twelve inches."

Hector grinned at her across the desk.

"Great! Can I read yours? I promise I won't copy."

"Go ahead. Ahm… mind if you read my History of Magic homework?" Asked Lily.

"Sure!"

Lily had to nearly dive into her bag to find her essay. There were lots of things in there - quills, parchment, notes, already graded essays - but finally re-emerged from it with her homework and gave it to Hector, along with the potions essay.

Finally, they both kept their things and left the library, but were surprised by a boy's whimper. He had fallen to the floor and three boys laughed at them.

"Shouldn't have put you into Gryffindor, Longbottom." Laughed one of them, a light blond, pale boy. Malfoy, Lily recognised. And she also recognised the other two, they had been bullying Hector: Crabbe and Goyle.

"Three against one. How very brave of you, Malfoy." Lily already had her wand in hand.

"Oh! Look, boys! The Blood-Traitors' cousin and the duelling Mudblood, we can also try that other jinx on one of them."

"I would like to see you try." Lily was shaking in anger, and her wand spat red sparkles. Hector carefully approached the boy on the floor and tried to help him stand, only to find that Malfoy had casted a leg-binding spell.

The blond boy raised his wand, and Lily raised hers. Surprisingly, Hector did the same. Hector, who had never stood for himself, had raised his wand to defend someone he barely knew.

Malfoy hesitated for a moment, looking from one wand to the other, clearly calculating how long it would take to cast a jinx and dodge the ones that would reach him. Then, he lowered his wand and left. Crabbe and Goyle followed him.

When they were at a safe distance, Lily moved to help Hector with the Longbottom boy. They helped him stand up and wrapped his arms around their shoulders so the boy could jump on his bound legs as they climbed the staircases up to the Gryffindor tower.

"So… you're Neville, right? Neville Longbottom?"

"Yes…" the boy whimpered.

"You are very good at Herbology!"

"I- I shouldn't be in Gryffindor…"

"Don't be silly, Neville." Hector replied.

"I mean it. You should be in Gryffindor- you are Ron's cousin, all Weasleys are in Gryffindor. I think the hat got confused and changed our houses - I mean, you're brave and all." He muttered to Lily.

"I'm not brave, Neville. I just stand up for friends."

"You are brave, you just saved me." Said Neville, sounding rather miserable. "I was the one supposed to be in Hufflepuff."

"There's nothing wrong with Hufflepuffs!" Hector intervened, exasperated.

"I… I'm sorry. I know. Anyway, Hufflepuffs are supposed to be the humble ones and Gryffindors are supposed to be brave."

"Not really." Said Lily, trying really hard not to scold Neville. She didn't exactly enjoy when people from other Houses thought less of Hufflepuff because they valued equality rather than braveness, intelligence or cunning. "Helga Hufflepuff was the only founder to stand up for equality and teach everyone. It means we are supposed to open our hearts and embrace the world, we must be fair and loyal on every situation, and it requires courage."

"Yeah, mate. Lily always protected me, and she went straight to Hufflepuff. Your House values don't have to be the first thing in your brain - it's all about your essence." Completed Hector, grinning reassuringly at Neville as they climbed the last four steps to the Gryffindor tower. "Well, we will leave you here. Good night, Neville!"

They left the boy standing in front of the Fat Lady's portrait and left.

Susan had been waiting for Lily when she arrived, and kept asking things about Snape refereeing the match against Gryffindor. Susan didn't dislike Snape, in fact she respected him very much, but didn't like him as much as Lily did either.

"You don't actually believe he is refereeing just because of me, right?" Asked Lily

"No! Of course not. I just thought you could know why, since you spend a lot of time in his office."

"Hm, no. But I have a guess." Lily lied easily. "Snape probably wants to keep an eye on whoever bewitched that broom on the last match. He wanted to be D.A.D.A teacher, after all."

Susan stared at the ceiling silently, thinking of her friend's explanation while Lily changed into her pajamas - which were getting slightly short on her ankles and wrists -.

"I guess that's reasonable." She finally answered, and lied down under her duvet.

They didn't talk anymore on that night, both thinking of the match to come. Susan never really enjoyed Quidditch, but was very supportive of Lily when it came to that matter, and the idea that her friend's honour was on stack because of Snape's decision didn't please her.

On the next day, Lily could barely swallow her breakfast. Her stomach felt as if someone had turned it inside out, all because Harry and Ron seemed to hate her now. Even Fred and George sounded a little cold when they said "good morning".

Hermione, on the other hand, didn't treat her differently at all, and even said she didn't think Snape would referee in order to favour anyone (except Slytherin), but still said something else that made Lily's stomach sink even worse.

They had found out about the Philosopher's Stone. It was very hard to hold back the impulse to run to Snape's dungeon when she heard the words, but she managed to stay put and act shocked.

"Yeah, I know, right? Immortality… why would Snape want it?"

"Exactly, Hermione. Why?" Lily muttered, and then went to the Hufflepuff table to sit with Cedric and Susan. She didn't stay there for long, though. She needed to talk to Snape, as soon as possible.

She thought about it all day long while copying down everything the teachers said, as time seemed to extend itself before allowing her to go to Snape.

"I should give them to the dog, one to each head, and spare myself of the trouble of keeping brainless children safe."

"Yeah, and that's because I'm the one spying on people."

"Stop complaining, you don't have to deal with half the things I do. Look at this pile of essays!" Snape indicated a pile of parchments which was easily higher than Lily.

"Everyone hates me because you're refereeing the match. Hufflepuffs think I'm bringing dishonour to our House, Gryffindors think I'm the one to blame if they lose." She sunk her face between her hands.

"Grow up." Snape said in a low voice, now looking at an essay. "Oh, this one is yours." The ends of his mouth twitched. Lily pretended to ignore his last comment, but she was dying to know how she had done in that essay.

"Easy for you to say, everyone has hated you for, like, the last twenty years." She finally said, and regretted it immediately.

He pressed his lips together and his eyes glittered in a different way for a split second. Lily wasn't sure, but she thought she had just hit a sensitive spot.

"Sorry" she said.

"No. Writing an essay about types of cauldrons and not mentioning the so-called revolutionary self-stirring caldron and how it is failure, since you can't control the rhythm of the movement, is utterly unforgivable." He said at last. Lily looked puzzled for a moment, and then understood what he was talking about. It was true, she had forgotten to mention the self stirring cauldrons - and so did Hector.

"Seven out of ten."

"But it was _one _thing!"

"Complain again and I take more marks." Snape said, and stared at her, as if daring Lily to say something.

"Right. Oh, yes, by the way, you should control that little pet of yours - Malfoy, I mean." She mocked. "Three on one, against _Neville Longbottom_. Me and Hector had to take him all the way to the Gryffindor tower last night, after that little arrogant pale-"

"Won't waste my time with childish issues." Snape cut her.

"It's not childish, Neville could have been seriously injured, Malfoy bound his legs together. And, by the way, what's a Mudblood? I get it's a bad name, but-"

Lily felt her voice die when, for the first time in her life, she saw Snape's face filled with anger. Not a cold, mocking expression, but truly furious, as if Lily had just said the most hideous possible thing.

"Don't you ever use that word again." He said, and Lily immediately regretted not jinxing Malfoy for calling Hector that.

"I won't. It's just that Malfoy used that word for Hector. And… Hagrid also said people call my family - the Weasley side, I mean - blood traitors."

Snape sat down again, and went back to wear his cold gaze.

"Some people believe that magical blood is only worth something when it comes from pure blood families, that is, from families all formed by wizards. These people believe that blood from muggles will spoil the magic, and that muggleborns are not truly wizards." The Potions master made a pause. He had stood up, and looked uneasily at Lily's drawing on the corner of the room.

"Those same people believe that there's no greater dishonour for a wizard than to marry a muggle, or a muggleborn."

"So… Mudblood is an offensive way to call muggleborns. And blood traitors are the ones who don't believe all this - this nonsense you just told me."

"Yes. And years ago, there was one wizard who took this idea to extreme, to a true massacre. Can you guess who I'm talking about?

"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."

"Yes. Voldemort." Lily froze in complete shock. She had heard the name only once, in the train to Hogwarts, when Harry said it. Ron had gasped at the time. "Don't be afraid of a name. You didn't live the time when he was in power, don't shrink like that. But try not to speak it either, at least not in front of others."

"Right." She said hesitantly.

"Voldemort's idea was purging the earth of muggleborns, and muggles, and commanding the entire world."

"So- he was basically a Nazi? A wizard version of Adolf Hitler?"

"Who?"

"How come you never heard of Hitler? Well, it happened just after the First World War, in the muggle world. This man, Adolf Hitler, used a hate speech against jews, and black people, and gay people, and anyone who opposed him, really. He nearly took over Europe, and he did hideous things. He would - lock people inside gas chambers and let them suffocate, all because of who they were. And a lot of people followed him back then."

Snape listened silently.

"I just know the basics because Hector told me. We don't really get to study it in school until we are about fourteen."

"That is a good parallel, anyway." The man said. "It's fascinating, really. Muggles and wizards _are_ all the same, after all."

At those words, Lily had the most weird sensation in her stomach, and before she could think, she had already asked.

"Were you one of his followers?"

Instead of looking offended, or furious, Snape stared at the drawn owl again. He lifted one hand to the wall and used it to support his weight. His coal black eyes looked suddenly vague, and Lily was subtly conscious of the pain that man had to deal with every day of his life. He had made the wrong decision, he had fought with a friend, he _was hated by everyone for the past twenty years_, just like she had said. She was experiencing it right then, being hated wasn't pleasing, and on her case, she still had friends to support her, and full confidence that she would be fine, because it wasn't her fault. On Snape's case, it was his fault. It would be like - looking at her mother every day and having her say that it was Lily's fault that Roger had died. Being hurt because of a lie was bearable, being hurt because of the truth was not.

"I'm so sorry. I was being stupid." She said over her last question, trying to pretend it had been just a random thought crossing her mind.

"No. You are right, I was." His voice sounded a little choked, but just for a moment before he could swallow it again. "And I am marked to the day of my death. There is nothing I can do to change what I did."

He raised one of his long sleeves and revealed a faint mark on his left forearm. The drawing of a skull with a serpent protruding from its mouth, like a tongue. Looked like it had been tattooed with fire.

"I'm sorry." Lily said again. "Isn't there any way to erase it?"

"No. It's with me, forever. To remind me of how foolish teenagers can be." He covered the mark again. "I'm trusting you with this, in what seems to be the weakest moment of my life. If I regret this decision, I'll make you regret ever being born. Am I clear?"

"I would never reveal a secret like this. I might be only a foolish child, but that doesn't mean I don't care about anything. I respect you, Professor, and I trust you." Lily cautiously touched his arm, trying to comfort him, and the man looked down at her in the most significant way. "You know, Helga Hufflepuff _did_ believe we should be loyal and help everyone as much as possible. When she said everyone, I think she actually meant _everyone_, not just students."

"It always goes back to loyalty. It was the lack of loyalty that led me to where I'm standing now."

"Maybe. And now you understand the value of loyalty."

Snape moved to sit back on his armchair.

"Just like your mother." He said once again. "And nothing like a child."

Lily said nothing.

"And now, I got to take care of Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived-To-Become-His-Potions-Master's-Burden." His voice was a furious purr, as he stared at the ceiling.

"Professor?" Lily called after a few moments. Snape turned his head to look at her. "What can I do?"

"You will be sitting on the bench, I suppose." He said lazily. "Keep an eye on the stands. If anyone raises a wand, you make a scene on the ground. Pretend to faint, or make sparkles with your wand. I will make sure you're not given detention, or punishment of any sort."

Lily nodded, and then left. It was well known that Snape was not the kind of man to open up like that, and surely would prefer to be left alone after that.

As the match drew nearer, Lily became more and more tense. She felt her stomach twitching whenever she looked at Snape, or Harry. Ron, Fred and George seemed to have forgiven her, since she hadn't been in Snape's office as often since their conversation about Voldemort, but the same couldn't be said about Oliver Wood and Angelina Johnson - whom she kept running into -. As for the Hufflepuffs, the only one unable to forgive her was Maxine O'Fleharty.

The Gryffindors were still avoiding her in the Herbology classes. But the worst of all were the Slytherins. They kept throwing mocking "_thank you's_" at her, and Malfoy was always careful enough to do so only when a teacher was looking. More than once, Hector had to grab Lily's shoulder to prevent her from doing something really stupid, like trying to transfigure Malfoy into a pig (Susan reckoned it wouldn't be too hard, since he already had the personality of one).

Snape was truly concerned and followed Harry himself, which was actually terrifying the boy. Besides, the mere sight of Harry drove the teacher angry, and he seemed to be avenging this feeling by being awful to him in the potions lessons.

"See you after the match, Lils." Hector waved as the girl followed her teammates to the locker room.

In there, Jeanne was giving his last instructions to the Hufflepuffs, to which Lily listened carefully.

"You don't go near committing any fouls, you don't give Snape any excuse to favour us. This is going to be a fair, clean game, this is our priority, it's even above than winning." He said. "Anthony, Maxine, don't knock anyone out of their brooms, _especially Potter_. Heidi, no blatching, not even accidental ones." Everyone was in silence, slightly tense. Jeanne finally looked at Lily.

"Lily, you will sit on the bench. Since you are there, keep an eye on Anthony and Maxine and watch them play."

"Will do it."

Finally, the two teams left the locker room. Fourteen of them had their broomsticks, but the ginger girl with wild curly hair immediately ran to the bench at the corner of the field and sat down. She looked around and saw the referee in his black robes. They exchanged a look for a split second. Then she looked up at the stands, and saw a crowd. Not only all the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors were there, but also all the Ravenclaws and Slytherins, and teachers, and even - _Dumbledore_.

Lily felt her body relax. She wouldn't be needed on that particular day, no one would dare attack Harry with Dumbledore watching. After all, didn't they all kept saying that Dumbledore was the only wizard Voldemort had ever feared?

The game began. Angelina Johnson alone was worth all of the three Chasers in Hufflepuff, although Heidi struggled bravely to keep the Quaffle. Fred and George were probably the best beaters Lily had ever seen - though she hadn't seen that many - but Anthony Rickett was not far behind them. It didn't take long for Snape to award Hufflepuff a penalty because George had hit a Bludger at him.

Lily nearly went to the center of the pitch to yell at Snape when he awarded Hufflepuff another penalty for no reason at all, but she contented herself with turning around to look at Ron and Hermione on the stands, both looking terribly tense, perhaps because Malfoy and his two troll friends were sitting just behind them. Neville Longbottom's face looked like a tomato.

She turned again to look at the match. Harry circled the game like a hawk, looking for the snitch. Suddenly, Lily saw a glimpse of gold on the height of her eyes, in the middle of the field, and Harry made a spectacular dive. He did look like a gigantic scarlet hawk as he went down, down and down, his arm stretched in front of his body, and grabbed the snitch right in front of Lily's shocked eyes. He wasn't part of the Hufflepuff team, in fact he was playing against Hufflepuff, but that sight gave her a chill on the spine. Watching Harry fly like that was truly beautiful.

Then, the boy recovered from his dive -nearly hitting Snape in the process - and stretched out his arm in triumph to show the snitch. The stands erupted. It _had_ to be a record, even in _Quidditch Through the Ages_ there was no mention of a Snitch being caught so quickly. Even the Hufflepuffs were cheering.

Then, he went down and Lily didn't hold back the urge to run to him and wrap her arms around him, while both the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs still seemed unable to digest what had just happened.

"That was beautiful, Harry! I knew you could do it! Even with Snape as a referee, I just _knew_ it" she forced herself to say the part about Snape, but she was being honest about the rest.

"Thanks, Lily…" he had started, but Lily had already been pushed away by a mass of Gryffindors.

She took a few steps back, but her body accidentally hit a larger one. A hand messed her already messy hair. "Hey, girl, you can't just go greet the other seeker like that!" Said Anthony.

"You have to be honest, Anthony, that was amazing. I would greet him even if he was from Slytherin." She said, and looked around to see Snape, who's face was very white. He spat bitterly on the ground, and rolled his eyes after meeting Lily's gaze. She moved to talk to him, but was stopped by Susan and Hector.

She walked alone with them through the school grounds for a while, all of them laughing about jokes. They barely asked anything about Snape refereeing, which made Lily trust them - especially Susan - even more.

The three students sat on the ground and Lily laid down to watch the clouds grow pink under the sunset. Susan opened a box of every-flavoured-beans to share with the others. They talked about muggle subjects - Susan was fascinated by every piece of information about Muggles ever since she learned they rode bikes instead of broms. Hector was just telling her about how televisions worked when Susan looked away from him, stretching her neck as far as she could.

"What is Professor Snape doing?" She said. Lily stood up to look. There was a hooded figure, all in black, moving to the woods. He was recognizable by his prowling walk, it couldn't have been anyone else but Snape.

"Probably going to the forest. There's loads of potions supplies out there." She lied. She knew it was something related to her parallel life in school. "Hey, I'll go ask him something about that cauldrons essay… I only got seven out of ten for that."

Lily didn't wait for an answer before walking after Snape, trying to make it seem like she was just a student trying to catch up with a teacher, rather than as if she was following him. She didn't want to answer questions afterwards. Unaware of her presence, Snape sneaked into the woods.

Snape moved carefully through the branches and Lily did the same, trying hard not to break the twigs under her feet, or have her hair tangled on a tree. She could only imagine Snape's face if he happened to turn around and see her following him. And with the most pathetic excuse ever.

They didn't walk much, only until a clearing where was… Quirrell. Lily, carefully hidden by the branches and leaves, leaned forwards to listen to them. She had to be really careful, for she was standing on the edge of the tree line.

"…D-don't know why you wanted t-to meet here of all p-places, Severus." Quirrell was stuttering worse than ever.

"Oh, I thought we'd keep this private" said Snape, his voice icy. "Students aren't supposed to know about the Philosopher's stone, after all."

Lily considered turning her head or lean closer to try and catch what Quirrell was mumbling, but she knew her dark orange curls would be too easily spotted in the middle of the green leaves.

"Have you found out how to get past that beast of Hagrid's yet?"

"B-but Severus,I-"

"You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell," said Snape, taking a step toward him. Lily had never seen her potions master look this menacing.

"I-I don't know what you"

"You know perfectly well what I mean."

Something heavy suddenly landed on Lily's shoulder, and the girl had to put her hand on her mouth and hold her breath to avoid a scream when her heart skipped a beat. She looked over at the thing on her shoulder, gathering whatever courage she could get. She let out a sigh. It was Helga. Lily had never been so simultaneously furious and relieved to see her owl. The bird hooted loudly and then flew away again.

The girl went back to listen Snape's voice say something like "- your little bit of hocus-pocus. I'm waiting." in a voice heavy with irony. The teachers had not heard her moment of panic, then.

"B-but I d-don't…"

"Very well. We will have another chat soon, when you've had time to think things over and decide where your loyalties lie."

He threw his cloak over his head and strode out of the clearing. Lily had the impression of feeling that damned badger bite her again, and looked down at her wrist, but there was no mark. She looked up again, at Quirrell, but all she saw was a shadow with… what looked like an oversized head.

What she had seen in the grounds after detention wasn't a creature, it had been _Quirrell_. She hurried up to follow Snape - the last thing she wanted was being caught alone in the forest by that man. Not caring about the noise this time, the girl ran to the direction Snape had gone, and caught up to him, nearly making him jump with the sound of her voice.

"So… of all people, Quirrell?"

"Boyd! What are you doing?" He caught her by the back of her robes, and pushed her forwards until they were away from the trees. "You were in the forest, at night. Do you ever think before acting?"

"You should have hidden better. Even Susan saw you."

"That's no excuse" he cut her, exasperated "two points from Hufflepuff, and be thankful that I won't tell Pomona. And don't look at me with that face, you should have known better than to follow me."

"I wouldn't _have to_, if only you told me what you know. But now I had to find out by myself that professor Quirrell is the one trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone."

"Are you stupid?" He cut her again. Something in his voice made Lily swallow dry. "Quirrell might look like an useless stuttering fraud, but he's not. Should we engage in a duel, I'm not sure I would defeat him. You would be an eyewitness to a murder, what do you think, inside that brilliant mind of yours, he would have done to you then?"

"You never saw me."

"Now, brilliant Lily thinks she knows more of the dark arts than a former Death Eater. If only brilliant Lily dreamed that there are other ways to detect people other than vision, perhaps she would think before wandering into a place called The Forbidden Forest." Snape glared daggers at her, his voice covered with sarcasm.

Lily looked down.

"You could have died. Again." Then Snape turned away from her, muttering something that sounded a lot like 'I'm not paid for this.'

Susan was sitting in front of the fire, with a plate of sandwiches on at the coffee table in front of her. She was reading a book.

"Quidditch Through the Ages?" Lily questioned, surprised. Susan turned back to look at her.

"Oh, yes. I know how excited you are about Quidditch, so I wanted to learn more about it."

"You don't need to bother, I know you don't really like Quidditch. We can talk about loads of other things."

Susan smiled softly.

"So- you're a Beater, right? I thought Beaters had to be all strong and large. You'd fit better as a Seeker, like Harry Potter."

"Well," Lily started as she sat down next to Susan "I have the built of a Seeker, but Jeanne wants to save the position to Cedric. And Maxine O'Flaherty will graduate next year and the team will need a Beater."

"Oh." Susan replied, trying really hard to fake interest. Than she pointed to the sandwiches on the coffee table "those are for you. I figured you wouldn't come back in time to eat, so I asked your cousins to knick something from the kitchen."

Lily was about to say she shouldn't have bothered, but right then her stomach made a loud noise and she realized she was starving. Susan passed her the sandwiches and Lily ate all of them as if she was a starving dog.

"Oh, Susan, what would I do without you?"

"What were you doing, anyway? Asking professor Snape about your essay can't have taken so long."

"Well- he was very angry at me for following him. Lost two points." Lily admitted.

"I wonder how you managed to get into his good side, Lily. I mean, you're the only one, really."

"He's nice. A bit cold, and unfair, but really interesting once you get to know him. Even hanged one of my drawing on his wall."

"Are you kidding? Severus Snape has a student's present hangin on his wall?" Susan laughed in shock.

Lily couldn't help but join her. It had indeed been unexpected.

On that night, Lily wrote to her mother, something she hadn't done since Christmas.

_Mom,_

_There is something wrong in the school. That badger you sent me has bitten me three times already, and Dumbledore is hiding something in the castle. And I know someone is trying to steal it. Me and Hector found a dead unicorn in the forest during detention. Someone had taken it's blood. Do you know what unicorn's blood is used for? I can't find it in the library._

_Harry and his friends are all worried about it, they think Snape is the one trying to do something. I can see why… Snape hates Harry. Do you know why? Anyway, everything seems to go back to Harry._

Truly, everything on the Wizarding world seemed to always go back to Harry Potter, an eleven year old boy who, according to himself, had never heard about magic before he got his letter from Hogwarts. It wasn't different from expecting Lily to save the world. And the fact that Ron told Lily about Harry's abusive family didn't make it any better, and she couldn't help but feel really bad for that boy. Life wasn't being too fair with him.

And neither was Snape. In spite of listening to Lily's criticism about his behaviour towards the boy, he still hated him, and everything somehow got even worse once she found out that Harry had also eavesdropped on Snape's little chat with Quirrell, and now he, Ron and Hermione thought the Potions Master was convincing Quirrell to help him get the Philosopher's Stone, and not preventing the item to be stolen. The trio honestly believed the D.A.D.A teacher to be the only thing between Snape and the stone - Lily herself thought that, should it be the case, the stone would be taken within two weeks at the most.

Snape didn't seem so sure himself, and preferred to respect his opponent, even though Quirrell seemed to be getting thinner and paler every day after Snape's threat.


	16. Chapter 16

**Violet**

Back in her house in Edinburgh Violet was sitting on a chair at the small outside area of her apartment. As March passed, the weather was getting warmer again, and even though she would never get used to Scotland's constantly cold weather, the woman felt like staying outside. The apartment next to hers was silent - Rachel was still at work. She was working more and spending more time outside her house ever since Lily and Hector had left to Hogwarts. She felt lonely, much more lonely than Violet, since Violet got occasional visits from Molly, and exchanged letters with old friends she was trying to reconnect with.

Violet had quitted her job a few weeks before, and was wondering how to tell Lily. They had been exchanging letters about moving to the countryside before Christmas, but she wasn't sure if her daughter had taken it seriously. Or maybe she had changed her mind after making peace with Hector.

Either way, Violet _had_ quitted her job and was fully focused on potions. She was seriously considering selling the apartment so she could buy a place with a fireplace and use the floo network to travel and deliver potions, or the gasoline would really start to get expensive.

It would be hard to leave Edinburgh after so long, especially when it came to saying goodbye to Rachel and Hector. And then, again, it would be harder for Rachel. She hadn't taken it very well when Violet told her at tea time a week before. Of course she hadn't fainted like on the day she learned about magic, but there had been a fair amount of tears. Violet even considered simply going to a different part of the city, but truth was she just wanted to leave behind the mask she had been wearing for so many years, and that mask was deeply related to Edinburgh.

She was just thinking about it when Helga arrived with a letter from Lily. The woman stroked the owl's head for a moment before reading what was written on the parchment, and then she would have fallen back if she wasn't already sitting. Dark magic in Hogwarts? Why? Not even the Dark Lord had dared to invade Hogwarts under Dumbledore's care, even when the odds were around twenty Death Eaters to each member of the Order. What was there to be hidden inside the castle?

Of all questions in Lily's letter, the only one she could answer was why Snape hated Harry Potter. It was only expected of him to hate the boy, after all, just as it was expected of him to grow some affection for Lily. But that was exactly the only one she couldn't answer, out of respect for her old school mate. Therefore, Violet composed a vague answer, and finished her letter by asking whether Lily was truly willing to move away from Edinburgh.

After Helga took off on her way back to Hogwarts, Violet started on some reflection about her old schoolmates. James was dead, Lily was dead, Peter was dead, Sirius was in jail after proven guilty of the crime he had sworn to be innocent. Severus was a bitter person after his past as a Death Eater. There it was, all her friends.

Except for one.

Remus Lupin, the werewolf. She had known his secret ever since she started dating Sirius, on fourth year. It wasn't hard to figure it out and then confirm it with Remus himself, since Sirius would deny it to death.

The poor man was probably just as lonely as Violet, and hardly willing to ever look into her face again, but she decided it was worth a try. She was willing to do anything to earn that special friend's trust back.

Once again, Violet took a piece of parchment and a quill and sat down outside to compose a rather difficult letter.

_My dear Remus_, she started.

_I don't believe you will read over everything I will write here. I truly doubt you will even bother to look at this letter once you figure I am the one writing it. But if you made it this far, then I must start my endless apologising. _

_I am sorry, Remus. I am sorry I abandoned the Order of the Phoenix, I am sorry I wasn't there when James and Lily were killed, I am sorry I wasn't there to take care of Peter and Sirius - especially Sirius -. Above all, I am sorry I wasn't there to support you after the war. _

_I was afraid, Remus. I was so afraid to lose Sirius, I believed it was less likely for him to be killed or chased by Bellatrix if he wasn't married to a blood traitor. I was afraid to betray the order if I got caught. But none of those things would have made me leave, if one last thing hadn't changed._

_Suddenly, my world turned upside down when I found that my life didn't belong to me, solely. I found that my life belonged to something else, someone else, growing inside me. I was pregnant, Remus. I was carrying a child, and even though I had been willing to give my life for the cause, I couldn't give my baby's life, not Sirius' child. That was the final reason why I left._

_After coming to the Muggle world, I married a man. My daughter - Sirius' daughter - was born nine months after I left, six months after I got married. My husband never suspected she was from another man; from the day she was born to when he passed away, Roger believed my baby to be premature. We called her Lily. It was a coincidence at first, but then it became a way to honour a friend. She's got her father's eyes._

_I saw him at the station, Remus. I saw Harry Potter. He looks so much like James… I couldn't help but think it was him. It was just a moment, just enough to make me happy before I got disappointed. Then I saw his eyes, Lily's eyes, and it made me happy again. They are alive, Remus, through Harry. Their soul, and their legacy, live on with this boy. I couldn't speak with Harry, yet, but I hope I find an opportunity soon._

_Anyway, about my daughter, you are the only one to know this. I never told Sirius, or the man I got married to, or Lily. Not even Molly knows about it. I trust you will keep my secret. And I hope that you can forgive me after learning the truth. _

_I am truly sorry, I wish I could be there to protect our family. I was selfish. But trust me, Remus, I am never leaving again. Can you find some space in your heart to, somehow, forgive me? If you do, please answer this letter._

_I am also sure that, if Sirius was here, he would ask you to be our daughter's godfather. And so would I._

_Love,_

_Violet._

Violet carefully folded the letter into four exactly equal squares as she digested the fact that, for the first time in her life, that story had left the interior of her heart. It was out in the world now, and nothing could change it, not even burning the letter. Once something leaves a mind, it is made official, and one can no longer pretend it doesn't exist. Once the truth was out, Violet could no longer take it back.

In a way it settled the fact that she no longer could stay in Edinburgh, pretending to be a Muggle. She had made her choice, and her choice was to once again face the Wizarding society. Above all, that was a chance to be with her friend again, and that was the most important thing at the moment.

She had to go. There was no way back.


	17. Chapter 17

**Professor Quirrell's Best Friend**

Lily was sitting at the Hufflepuff table for breakfast when she got the news about moving away from Edinburgh, and she knew better then not to tell Hector immediately. Obviously he didn't take it well, but didn't react badly either.

"Well… I guess you could spend some time with us on summer break", he said.

"Sure! You and your mom can come too!"

"Of course. Well… it might be good after all. You will have a proper witch house, we can study a lot there. And there's the flu network, there must be a place at Edinburgh we can use to travel."

"Mom says there's a place behind the Chocolate Tree shop."

Hector smiled at her, and nodded. Then he looked down, and stepped away from Lily.

"Promise we will still be best friends." His voice was barely a whisper.

"Nothing can ever change that." Lily showed her pinky, which Hector held with his own, and smiled again.

They finally started their way to the History of Magic class — to which they were very much late — and, in their way, crossed with Hagrid, who was in a hurry and wished a loud good mourning.

Professor Binns was eager to make them study for the exams, which, in Lily's opinion, were ages away and shouldn't be a matter of concern that soon. Hector disagreed, and was actually happy to study the magical subjects.

To Lily's absolute horror, all the teachers seemed to have adopted Binns' schedule, and gave extra work to the Easter holiday. Therefore, the Hufflepuff and the Ravenclaw, alongside with Susan and Cedric, would spend quite some time in the library. Cedric was studying hard because of his O.W.L's test within two years - which didn't make any sense to Lily, revising for a test that would only take place in two years — but Cedric wanted to make sure he would do amazingly and prove his father he hadn't chosen Quidditch because his grades weren't good enough for a job at the Ministry.

On the first good day in months, Lily had given up on her extra work and was staring at the window, longing for a single evening of practice with the Quidditch team.

"Lily, focus!"

"You must be kidding, Cedric. Look outside! Its sunny. There's no way you don't want to just climb on your broom and practice for a few hours."

"I do, but I have extra work to worry about. And you should too. You know you won't be allowed in the team if your grades are below average."

"I still need a break". Lily closed her book and left her chair. Hector looked up at her, and smiled, but looked back at his book. "I'll be back soon."

Lily walked through the shelves and tables, and saw Harry, Ron and Hermione talking to Hagrid- about the Stone. "We know what's the dog is guarding, it's the Sorcerer's St-"

"Shhh!" Hagrid looked around, just as Lily hid behind a shelf to continue listening. She was shocked that the trio was talking about the Stone just like that. That way, everyone would know, and she could bet that someone in Slytherin would take interest on stealing the Stone.

Lily heard as Hagrid invited them to go to his house for a cup of tea later, and decided to join them, just as Hagrid left. What was he doing in the library, anyway?

"What was he hiding on his back?" Hermione had asked just as Lily approached, before they even said Hi.

"Dunno, but he seemed suspicious." Said Lily.

"I'm going to see what section he was in" said Ron. He came back in a minute with a pile of books in his arms.

"Dragons! Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons! Look at these: Dragons Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to Inferno, a Dragon Keeper's Guide"

"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him," said Harry.

"But it's against our laws," said Ron. "Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It's hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden - anyway, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie's got off wild ones in Romania."

"But there aren't wild dragons in Britain?" said Harry.

"Of course there are," said Ron. "Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you. Our kind have to keep putting spells on Muggles who've spotted them, to make them forget."

"So what on earth's Hagrid up to?" said Hermione.

Maybe they were trying to give the Stone another source of protection, Lily thought, but said nothing.

"I'm off to fly a little. Call me outside when you are going to Hagrid's, I'm very interested on his Dragon".

So when the trio went to the Gamekeeper's house, they stopped by the Quidditch field to call for Lily, and down hill they went.

Hagrid took them inside, where Lily immediately began to sweat. It was stifling hot. She, like the others, carefully refused Hagrid's sandwiches.

"So - yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?"

"Yes," said Harry. "We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Sorcerer's Stone apart from Fluffy."

"O'course I can't," he frowned at Harry. "Number one, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here fer a good reason. It Was almost stolen outta Gringotts - I s'ppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy."

"Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know,

you know everything that goes on round here," said Hermione in a warm, flattering voice. Hagrid's beard twitched and they could tell he was smiling. "We only wondered who had done the guarding, really." Hermione went on. "We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."

Hagrid fell for Hermione's flattering voice right away.

"Well, I don' s'pose it could hurt ter tell yeh that... let's see... he borrowed Fluffy from me... then some o' the teachers did enchantments... Professor Sprout - Professor Flitwick - Professor McGonagall -" he ticked them off on his fingers, "Professor Quirrell - an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."

"Snape?"

Lily had frozen to hear Quirrell's name.

"Yeah - yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."

"But you are the only one to know how to get pass Fluffy, right?" She shouted. "Just you and Dumbledore, and no one else, isn't it? You wouldn't tell anyone else, not even one of the teachers."

"Not a soul knows except me and Dumbledore."

"Well, that's something" Harry muttered to the others. "Hagrid, can we have a window open? I'm boiling"

"Can't, Harry, sorry," said Hagrid, and looked at the fire. Lily widened her eyes as she noticed the huge black egg resting on the bottom of the fireplace, just as Harry asked what that was.

"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" asked Ron, crouching over the fire along with Lily to get a better look at the egg. "Must have cost you a fortune"

"Won it," said Hagrid. "Las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest."

"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched?" said Hermione.

"Well, I've bin doin' some readin' , said Hagrid, pulling a large book from under his pillow. "Got this outta the library - Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit - it's a bit outta date, o' course, but it's all in here. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mothers breathe on I em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here - how ter recognize diff'rent eggs - what I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them."

Hagrid did seem very pleased with himself, and didn't mind when Hermione stated that he lived in a house made of wood. He was now humming merrily as he stoked the fire.

Lily had heard enough, and said she was going back to the library, but passed through the D.A.D.A classroom and stopped by the door after hearing Quirrell's voice.

"No- please don't" he cried like a dying animal. "I'm sorry."

Her badger seemed to be trying to carve a hole into Lily's wrist. But then, Lily heard something else, which made her knees nearly fail. Only fear kept her from running. A voice, a high pitch voice, answered to Quirrell. A venomous voice, which sounded like it was inside of Lily's head.

_You would not dare to disobey your Lord, would you, Quirrell?_

Lily didn't stay to hear Quirrell's answer, and forced her legs to run back to the library.

Hector was still there, with Cedric, their noses stuffed into books. Lily randomly grabbed a book from the nearest shelf - one about magical family trees and sat with them to read. Something caught her attention. The name Black was on one chapter of the book.

"Are the Blacks an important magical family?" She asked, and Cedric looked up to her.

"Yes, of course. Pure-Blood supremacists, they are. All Slytherins, of course."

Lily frowned, and got up again, this time to go to the Dungeons and meet Snape. She said goodnight to Hector, and ensured Cedric that she would be back to the common room before curfew.

On her way, she passed again through Quirrell's office, which the teacher was leaving to go somewhere. She couldn't prevent herself from looking at his turban, but right then, Quirrell turned to face her, and something on his eyes was not right. He didn't have his usual frightened look, he somehow seemed ferocious.


	18. Chapter 18

**Norbert**

Lily walked through the corridors, feeling her feet reluctant to obey her.

The door to Snape's office was open and the man was standing against the wall staring at the fire which made his eyes glitter in a hidden fury.

"Professor- I need to ask you something," said Lily, and Snape seemed to come back from the shadows inside him.

Since there was no answer, Lily proceeded.

"On the first day we met, in the Leaky Cauldron, you asked me if my father was someone named Black. But I just read about that family, and I don't think my mother would be involved with someone like that."

"The man I thought to be your father was not a pure-blood supremacist, and he hated his family," he answered. "Not that he was any better than them, but your mother overlooked his evil side. Rather like Potter's mother."

"Were they friends? My mother and Lily Potter, I mean. Hagrid said so."

"Did he?"

"Yes, when we were in the forest."

For a moment, only the clicks from the flames were audible

"Yes, your mother and Lily were friends. Some people thought them to be sisters, because they looked alike."

"Do you think I look like Lily?"

"Why would you possibly ask that?"

"Because Hagrid said so. He said that having me and Harry here was like having my mother and both of his parents back at Hogwarts."

"That is a lie. Lily Evans is dead, she will never be back. Besides, her eyes were green."

"Like Harry's eyes, right?"

Snape blinked twice, as if he had been hit by something. "If you have nothing of my interest to ask, then leave," he pointed at the door, and walked towards his bedroom behind the door at the corner of the office. But Lily's voice made him stop.

"Quirrell knows. He knows I heard you talking. I don't know how, but he looked at me like he wanted me dead."

"Keep that bracelet on your wrist, then, and stay close to your friends."

"Do you think he could actually kill me?"

"I can't answer that, but I am not willing to take the risk. And I know Potter's life is at stake."

Something even heavier fell inside Lily. She could feel her brain working faster than she could follow, until a horrible idea came to her.

"Professor, I think I know why Quirrell wants the stone." Snape turned again and frowned. "But first I needed to know. Why would someone take unicorn's blood?"

"It's forbidden. The blood will give life to the one to take it, but will shatter their soul."

"Professor," she started "can't you see? The stone is not for himself. It is for someone who desperately needs to stay alive, because their soul was already shattered. Someone who wants to kill Harry Potter."

Snape had his eyes wide open, slightly shaking his head.

"It is not possible."

"Professor, he is trying to come back".

"I will escort you back to your dormitory. From now on, don't be alone. Stay close to your family, to your quidditch team and, as much as possible, to the Headmaster. Don't tell anyone about this. Not even to your mother."

Snape took Lily by the wrist and went with her to the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room, and left her there. She had never seen the Potions Master on that state of nerve.

"Professor, don't let him get to the stone," she said.

"I won't."

She went to sleep.

From that day on, Lily refused to stay alone, and avoided Quirrell at all costs. She even refused to go down to Hagrid's hut, afraid that she would meet the D.A.D.A teacher again, hunting for unicorns. Besides, Lily was doing her best to avoid leaving Harry alone, even though that was almost never necessary, since Ron and Hermione were always with him.

It wasn't until a Friday morning, when Hedwig came with a piece of parchment wich read _It's hatching_, that Lily left the castle, just after her potions class, to meet Harry, Ron and Hermione on their way from Herbology class.

When they arrived at the hut, Hagrid opened the door for them, looking flushed and excited.

"It's nearly out!"

The black egg was lying on the table, the shell covered in cracks, and it sounded like something was moving inside.

They all drew their chairs nearer to the table and watched closely.

All at once, there was a scraping noise and the egg split open, freeing the baby dragon, which rolled on the table. Lily thought she had never seen anything so beautiful. It was so black it glittered slightly, and the spiny wings were huge compared to the body. It looked like a flying fox, only it had a crocodilish face, a scaly skin, stubs of horns and bulbing, orange eyes.

The baby dragon sneezed, a couple sparks flew out of his long snout.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured; and reached out a hand to stroke the dragon's head. It snapped at his fingers and showed his tiny, sharp fangs. "Bless, him. Look, he knows his mommy!" said Hagrid.

"Hagrid," said Hermione, "how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?"

Hagrid opened his mouth to answer, but all of a sudden he went white as snow. Lily looked at where he was staring, and felt color flee from her face as well. Malfoy was looking through the window.

Through the next week, the blond Slytherin had an evil smirk on his face. Lily went paler every day, and dark circles grew under her eyes. She had more than one reason not to sleep. First, a dark wizard in the castle trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone for Voldemort. And now she was one word from Malfoy away from being expelled from Hogwarts along with Ron, Hermione, Harry and Hagrid.

Hector was worrying sick, and kept asking her what was happened, but found her lips sealed.

"I can't tell, Hector. I wasn't supposed to know anything myself. I will let you know everything when it's over," she kept saying.

But by far the hardest one to avoid was Snape. He asked her again and again what was the trio doing and how close to go find the Stone they were, and she struggled to make him happy with her answers.

"I already told you, they are too worried with the finals."

"Potter wouldn't worry about the finals if his life depended on that."

"But Hermione does. She makes them study all afternoon long, even when they are at Hagrid's."

She could see in Snape's eye that he didn't believe her for a second, but for some reason he was letting her slip through his questions without being tortured or put to detention.

Hermione told Lily that she, Ron and Harry were trying to put some sense into Hagrid's head, and finally had made him agree to send a letter to Charlie, Ron's brother, who studied dragons in Romania, and ask him to take the baby, which Hagrid had decided to call Norbert.

Lily decided not to get too involved, although she was the one to go to the owlery and tie the letter to Hedwig's leg - they all decided that, if one of the Gryffindors did it, Malfoy would surely follow them and perhaps steal the letter. A few days later, Harry came to tell her that everything was set and that Charlie's friends would come on Saturday by midnight to take Norbert at the highest tower.

She thought everything was, indeed, set but by that very afternoon Ron showed up with his hand swollen to twice its normal size, and with a nasty, poisonous shade of green. Norbert had bitten him. It required Lily a lot of effort to take him and see Madam Pomfrey about it, she even had to be the one to talk to her and tell that Ron had been bitten by a dog, and stayed there since she had the afternoon off.

Again it seemed that everything would be alright, but then again something happened. Malfoy and that awful smirk of his came to the hospital wing, under the excuse that he wanted to borrow one of Ron's books, and stayed there, laughing at them and threatening to tell Madam Pomfrey what had really bitten Ron. At last, Lily waited for the nurse to leave for a moment and pointed her wand at Malfoy's neck.

"I don't care what you are gonna tell them, if you don't leave right now I will make you forget how to not wet your bed at night," she said, and it seemed that something good had come out from her duel against Hector, because now her jinxes were fairly famous around the school and Malfoy left at once, taking Ron's book with him.

"Merlin, I despise him."

"I swear I'm going to beat the hell out of him someday," said Lily as she sat down to read as much as she could about History of Magic.

It wasn't until the end of the day that Harry and Hermione came through the door, panting, to see how Ron was doing. Then Ron proceeded to tell them everything about Malfoy's threats and when Hermione tried to calm him down by telling that it would all be over by Saturday at midnight he sat up as if he had been electrocuted.

"Midnight on Saturday!" he said. "Oh no oh no - I've just remembered - Charlie's letter was in the book Malfoy took, he's going to know we're getting rid of Norbert."

Lily felt her face loose all colour, but as she opened her mouth to say that there was no time to change plans, Madam Pomfrey came over and made them leave, for Ron needed sleep.

On that night, the girl couldn't sleep and stayed by the common room, watching the fire. She knew she shouldn't stay awake because of the practice on next day, but she also knew that they had to come up with a plan. Harry had his father's invisibility cloak, that was true, but that wasn't enough insurance, and should they fail, Hagrid was going straight to that wizard prison - what was it called? Azkaban.

By the next morning, it seemed that she, Hermione and Harry had come up to the same conclusion. One of them would have to stay behind, because they simply wouldn't fit under the cloak along with a dragon. Hermione decided that Lily would be the one to stay, because it would be too long a way to go from Gryffindor dormitory to Hufflepuff's, and then to Hagrid's cabin and then up and down the tower and back to the two dormitories. Lily's job would be to make sure Malfoy wouldn't find them on time.

So she went to have tea with Hagrid, and took her recording statue with her, making sure it was recording the dragon. By saturday night, after curfew, she had the minuscule unicorn run around the castle, imitating the dragon.

After that, she wrote a letter to her mother telling all about Norbert, and how afraid she was that their task would fail. Lily tied the letter to Helga's leg and let her go through the window before going to sleep.


	19. Chapter 19

**Pre-Ascension**

It was only on next morning that Lily found their plan had not been successful. She woke up early to wait for her friends, only to find Gryffindors points reduced by about a hundred. But Slytherin had lost quite a bit of points as well, so her trap seemed to have worked.

Something grabbed her cloak from behind and pulled her towards a corner, and, before she could do anything to prevent it, Snape was barking at her.

"A _dragon_?"

"It was only a baby-"

"And you saw what it did to Weasley's hand, it could have killed half the school," he spat the words through his teeth. "Apparently Potter, much like his father, is a magnet for trouble," he kept going, although it didn't seem like Lily was supposed to keep listening.

"But it is gone now. It must be at Romania by this time. Norbert is going to be with Charlie, my cousin."

"You named the thing?"

"We didn't. It was Hagrid, all he wanted was a new pet."

Snape let his back rest on a wall to the information that Norbert was gone.

"Hagrid and his pets. First an acromantula, then a three headed dog and finally a dragon. I wonder what will be next next. A basilisk, perhaps?"

Before she could ask what was an acromantula, or a basilisk, Snape left, his cloak moving behind him like a ghost as he warned that it would not be the end of their conversation.

Hector came to her right after the potions master left.

"What happened? How did Gryffindor lose half of its points?"

"Harry and Hermione were trying to smuggle Hagrid's dragon to the astronomy tower last night, and apparently they were caught."

"Oh- so it was a dragon."

"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you."

"Don't worry, I know you wanted to."

"So- you are not mad at me?"

"No. I just don't want you to protect me anymore. I want to know what is going on and help if I can."

"Alright. Meet me by the lake after breakfast. I will leave first and go the long way, you can leave fifteen minutes after me and take the short way," Lily whispered. She caught the confusion in Hector's eyes and explained. "It's really important."

"O- ok."

Then she spoke louder, but not too loud, only enough to sound natural.

"And bring your potions textbook, I will help you revising for the exams."

Hector's face twisted for a second and then came to understandment of how important and secret were the current events. He answered that yes, he would be there on time and would also need help with herbology.

They had breakfast and Lily watched guiltily as the Gryffindors arrived at the Great Hall and saw their missing points and then asked each other what had happened and finally looked livid at Harry, Hermione and Neville Longbottom, the boy Lily and Hector helped at the library. Perhaps Gryffindor wouldn't lose just as many points if Lily had been the one to go instead of Hermione. She moved her lips, trying to make them understand that she was very sorry if she had failed on her task to distract Malfoy, but not Hermione nor Harry seemed to have caught her words.

"Have you heard about it? Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom and Hermione Granger lost Gryffindor a hundred and fifty points last night for being caught after hours. I guess Slytherin will win this year too." Cedric sat near her with a very unhappy face. "If it keeps going like that, they will start rallying their pure-blood ideas again."

After finishing her hot chocolate Lily got up and left through the courtyard, taking the long way down to the lake, and even went back a few times to see if someone - especially Quirrell- had not been following her steps. Lily knew she shouldn't be walking alone, especially so far to the castle, but she also knew she couldn't take any chances that Quirrell would listen to her talking to Hector. But the trail to the lake was quiet and sunny and the birds sang calmly, and every time she went back her way to check, there was no sign of anyone following her.

She ended up taking so long that Hector arrived before her, and Lily met her friend throwing stones at the lake.

"What took you so long?" He asked.

"I had to make sure no one was following me," Lily answered as she removed her shoes to step on the freezing water as they talked.

"So-"

"Well- basically the Philosopher's Stone, which is a magical artifact that can turn any metal to gold and give eternal life to its owner, is hidden in the castle because someone is trying to steal it, and professor Snape is having me keep watch on Harry, Ron and Hermione because they are investigating, and they think Snape is the one trying to steal the stone, but we found Quirrell is the thief and he wants the stone for You Know Who." Lily stumbled upon her own words as she tried to make the story as short as she could.

Hector's face went through a whole list of expressions and feelings, from shock to indignation and fear, as he digested all the information. Then he opened his mouth and closed it again three times as he decided what was the right question to ask.

"Why would anyone help Him come back?"

"I guess it must be the same reason why people followed him in the first place. He must have promised Quirrell something he craves, which must be importance."

"Wow. And I thought you were hiding something about the quidditch team."

"I wouldn't hide anything from you unless it was something too dangerous."

"So what do we do?"

"I don't know. Harry, Ron and Hermione have the right clues, but they are following to the wrong direction, and Snape won't let me know much."

"Do you know what is standing between the stone and Quirrell right now?"

"Fluffy, a three headed dog in the third floor. That's why Dumbledore told us not to go there. And Dumbledore told me Snape is trustworthy," Lily answered automatically as she looked around, trying to get any sign that they were being watched.

"And does anyone know how to get past Fluffy?"

"Well, Dumbledore must know."

"So- the only thing between You-Know-Who and the stone is a three headed dog?"

"I suppose there are other traps."

"Lily, this won't end well."

"We can only hope it will. Oh, and don't tell Harry anything about what I said to you. The last thing he needs is learning that the person who killed his parents is in Hogwarts."

Hector nodded, and they went back to the castle after quickly looking around to check if no one had been listening.

From then on, Lily and Hector focused on studying or the finals and keeping company to Neville Longbottom, who had also been caught after hours for trying to warn Harry and Hermione about Malfoy. No one was talking to Neville, just as they weren't talking to Hermione or Harry. In fact, not only the Gryffindors but also the Ravenclaws ad]nd Hufflepuffs were being hostile to them, but especially to Harry, for basically giving the House Cup to Slytherin.

Neville felt cheated by Harry, all he had done was try to protect his housemate , only to find out he was a prankster willing to lose his house a bunch of points only to play a prank on a Slytherin. Thankfully they wouldn't speak much on that matter, because finals were coming and all they had time to do was study to memorize ingredients to complicated potions, dates of magical discoveries and goblin rebellions and all there was to know about the subjects they had learned through the year.

Lily would still report to Snape every few days - he made sure to keep her behind after his classes - bu she had nothing to tell.

"After the dragon thing Harry promised he would stop minding other people's business," the ginger girl explained. "I mean it this time, I'm not hiding any more dragons."

"Nothing like losing the House Cup to straight a bad behaviour, hum?" He said calmly.

After that, Snape seemed somehow cheerful and confident, and Lily heard he didn't even bother to take points from a third-year Gryffindor who had been talking through his explanation.

Harry, Hermione and Ron, on the other hand, thought this odd behaviour was because Snape had finally managed to get whichever information he wanted from Quirrell so he could steal the Stone. Still, the trio apparently was resolved on their decision to mind their own business. Then, one morning Neville came to tell Lily and Hector that he would be in detention on that night, and he was supposed to meet Filch in the entrance hall at eleven o'clock along with Hermione and Harry. Lily felt guilty again.

"I was the one who should be in detention, Hector," she said to her friend as they were walking to their dormitories after studying until late at night.

"What good would it make? You would still lose your house fifty points, and Gryffindor would have lost a hundred points too."

"Maybe if Hermione stayed back at the Gryffindor common room she could have warned Neville not to go, so me and Harry would only lose fifty points each."

"Maybe, but that's not how it went and there is no point on overthinking it. Good night, Lily, and don't worry too much about them," Hector said before starting to climb the stairs to Ravenclaw common room.

Lily went down to her own dormitory, where she found Susan still trying to learn by heart the ingredients of potions, so she sat along with her to help and ask again what were the names of Jupiter's moons.

At ten fifty seven, she went down to the common room and told her recording statue to follow Harry and record everything through the detention and then come back to her.

As she listened to the recordings when the unicorn came back at one o'clock, Lily felt her heart drop. Firenze's last words to Harry resounded in her head for what seemed like hours. _Can you think of nobody who has waited many years to return to power, who has clung to life, awaiting their chance?_

So Lily wasn't going mad, and wasn't wrong either. Snape had to listen to that, he needed to know. Voldemort was indeed drinking blood from the unicorns near Hogwarts, lurking around in the woods.

"Go to Snape, wake him up and show what you just showed me, but only to Snape," she said and opened the passage to the recording statue.


	20. Chapter 20

**Invisible Menace**

On the next morning, Lily skipped breakfast and went straight to see Snape, who looked pale and feverish. A fire burned behind his eyes, but it didn't seem enough to keep him on his feet.

"Have you received my message?" She asked, but it was really unnecessary.

"_Muffliato"_, whispered Snape as he pointed his wand at the door. "We can't take chances, and it seems that the walls might have ears."

"So, you did receive my message."

"Using a toy to send a message might not have been your cleverest idea, but it was better than an owl."

"I had to show it to you right away, and I didn't think it was safe to go outside with that- thing lurking around Hogwarts."

"We finally had some improvement on your self-preservation sense, haven't we?"

"It is different when you know that Voldemort might be behind the next door."

"Good."

They stayed in silence for a moment, both had their eyes lost in the sparks. Both knew what was the question they had to ask, but they also knew that neither of them had the answer, and it required an impossible amount of will to recognise that they didn't have the faintest idea of what to do.

"We should go to Dumbledore. He needs to be prepared for an attack at any time."

"The Dark Lord wouldn't dare to face Dumbledore until he has his former strength back."

"Then how will he get to the stone?"

Snape raised his eyes and a distant, but undeniable, spark of hope was back in his countenance.

"A trap. Dumbledore will be our bait. Within a few days we will have Dumbledore out of the school, somehow, and that is when Quirrell will take his plans to action..."

"And then we catch him!" Lily felt that very same mix of hope and relief strike her right through her chest.

"And, until then, you can't even _think_ about our plans."

"Wait! Voldemort can read minds?"

"It's called legilimency. The Dark Lord is probably the most skilled legilimens of our time. In the past, not only he could penetrate one's mind and interpretate their thoughts, but also plant visions and memories into their minds. It was his pleasure to torture them like that."

It took a long time for Lily to process what she had just heard, and in the meantime she just stood still.

"How am I going to control what I am thinking?"

"There is an ancient method called occlumency. It requires an immense power of will, but deceiving a lost soul trapped inside a coward like Quirrell shouldn't be too hard, even when the referred soul belongs to the Dark Lord."

"And how do I do that?"

"Sit there," Snape pointed to the chair in front of his. "Your mind must remain blank as I try to penetrate it. Concentrate."

Lily focused. She stared at the fire without really looking at it, making a tremendous effort not to allow any concrete thought. Her entire brain seemed to sting as she repelled everything that menaced to come into her mind. She distantly heard Snape's voice casting a spell, and frowned in order to remain focused. It only lasted a few minutes before she had to rest her back on the chair, staring vaguely at the ceiling, sweating and panting.

Snape snapped his fingers in front of Lily's eyes.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think it would be so hard."

"Take this," Snape gave her a tiny goblet with a blue substance, which Lily drank right away. It seemed to restore some of her energies. "You did well. You resisted for over a minute on your first attempt. I must say it is remarkable."

"But I don't think I can make it for an entire day!, let alone a week, or so."

Snape seemed to think for a moment.

"Try again, but this time, instead of keeping your mind empty, you must focus on something else. Instead of blocking me, you must filter what you allow me to see."

"Alright," she answered after giving it a few seconds of thought on how would she do what was being asked of her.

"Brace yourself. _Legilimens_!"

All of a sudden, the room was gone. She could feel her father's arms holding her tiny, tiny waist as he raised her in the air to see the painting he had made of her. It jumped to Hector, or a younger version of him, as they did they English homework together. Then there was Ron, and Harry, and Hermione reading about the- no! She couldn't remember that. Norbert came into her mind, and the awful, awful bite it had given on Ron's hand. The name Nicolas Flammel came to her mind, and she managed to mentally repeat all the names of all Jupiter's moons. Her first Potions lesson and her pride to be the only one to get full marks on the test, followed by the Mirror of Erised, and Ron speaking of the st- _I must think of something else! _

And there she was, her face against asphalt, hair all over her eyes. She could only get a glimpse of blue eyes staring at her in terror before a red, hot liquid splashed on her face and the smell of smoke mixed with the noise of high speed wheels made her close her eyes. It was all over in a second.

She felt Snape let go of her mind, only to realise she was on her knees, curled on her own body while tears ran on her cheeks. Lily tried to open her eyes, feeling dizzy, as if a tremendous amount of pressure had just left her body. She saw the stone floor, a little bit wet from her tears. Her hands quickly went for her hair, to take it off the way. Lily took a deep breath and rushed to wipe away her tears before she looked up to see Snape much closer than she thought.

"I'm sorry."

"No, I am sorry. I should not have allowed you to continue. Come on, get up, sit down over here," commanded Snape as he poured another potion on a goblet which he had conjured out of thin air.

Lily took a sip of the potion and immediately felt her nerves relaxing.

"What is this?"

"A calming draught."

Lily took another sip, and then another although she couldn't really taste it other than it's smoothness.

"It didn't work, did it? There is no way that I can hide my mind from Quirrel."

"In fact, you impressed me. Every time I seemed to be about to find the right memory, you guided me to a different place. You were the one to control me most of the time, until that last event."

"Actually, I controlled that too. It was a memory I couldn't take off my mind, even with someone pulling me away."

"I suppose you have the talents to be one of the most accomplished occlumens of our time," Snape simply said. "Go, now. You have a test in a few hours, and I suppose you still need to eat."

Lily left in a moment, leaving Snape alone and amazed, even though he would never confess it, at least not in those words.

From that day on, Lily spent every minute of every hour redirecting her mind to the tests. Although it was exhausting, she found the exercise very useful. Sometimes she would vaguely feel Snape trying to penetrate her thoughts to check on her barriers, but ultimately she always pushed him off. As the days dragged by, there was no doubt that Fluffy was still protecting the trapdoor, because, well, Quirrell was still there - and going paler every day.

It was so hot that Lily could no longer wear her hair other than well tied above her head, and the fact that not a single windstream ever seemed to have entered the classroom where they did their written papers didn't help. Even the anti cheating quill they all had been given seemed hotter than normal quills.

On the practical exams, Lily did her best to bewitch Flitwick's pineapple and to make McGonagall's mice into the best snuffbox she could think of. The cooler classroom was down in the dungeons, where Snape made sure to make everyone nervous while they tried to remember the ingredients for a Forgetfulness potion. By that time, Lily was so tired of pushing away her thoughts that she wished she could take that potion herself. Snape's lips twisted into a hidden smile as the idea crossed her mind, and she allowed herself a half suppressed laugh.

Finally, after the very last exam, which was History of Magic, Lily could meet Hector out of the room and go down to the lake with him, Ron, Hermione and Harry.

Harry kept rubbing his scar, and didn't seem any happy about the end of the finals. It was Ron who first questioned his state.

"You could look more cheerful, Harry, we've got a week before we find out how badly we've done, there's no need to worry yet."

"I wish I knew what this means!" he burst out angrily. "My scar keeps hurting - it's happened before, but never as often as this."

"Go to Madam Pomfrey," Hermione suggested.

"It's not like she has seen many cases of scar like Harry's, Hermione," stated Hector. "Harry survived an attack from You-Know-Who, it's not something that has ever happened before."

"I'm not ill," said Harry. "I think it's a warning… it means danger's coming…"

Lily was already looking around, half expecting Quirrell to jump from beneath the lake like a crocodile. Ron didn't seem to worry too much.

"Harry, relax, Hermione's right, the Stone's safe as long as Dumbledore's around. Anyway, we've never had any proof Snape found out how to get past Fluffy. He nearly had his leg ripped off once, he's not going to try it again in a hurry. And Neville will play Quidditch for England before Hagrid lets Dumbledore down."

Harry nodded, and remained silent for a while, until he spoke again of an odd feeling that he had forgotten to do something important. Hermione said it was just the exams.

"I woke up last night and was halfway through my Transfiguration notes before I remembered we'd done that one," she added.

But Lily knew perfectly that Harry nor Ron worried that much about their results on the finals so she, too, began listing everything the trio had told her about the Stone, caring to leave out of her mind any critical information. No matter how hard she tried, she could not think of anything. Harry, on the other hand, seemed to have just had an epiphany from an owl carrying a letter and jumped to his feet.

"Where're you going?" said Ron sleepily.

Lily followed Harry, and so did Hector, even before Harry answered that he had remembered something, and that they had to go and see Hagrid.

"Why?" panted Hermione as she hurried to keep up with them.

"Don't you think it's a bit odd," said Harry, scrambling up the grassy slope, "that what Hagrid wants the most than anything else is a dragon, and a stranger turns up who just happens to have an egg in his pocket? How many people wander around with dragon effis if it's against the wizard law? Lucky they found Hagrid, don'† you think? Why didn't I see it before?"

Lily hurried up her step. Harry was right, the answer had been there all the time. The dragon dealer had bought the information from Hagrid with a dragon egg, and now Quirrell was just waiting for Dumbledore to leave Hogwarts! She pushed away her thoughts again, and held herself not to go immediately to Snape.

Hagrid was sitting on an armchair outside his house; his trousers and sleeves were rolled up, and he was shelling peas into a large bowl.

"Hullo," he said, smiling. "Finished yer exams? Got time fer a drink?"

Harry cut off Ron as he agreed.

"No, we're in a hurry. Hagrid, I've got to ask you something. You know that night you won Norbert? What did the stranger you were playing cards with look like?"

"Dunno," said Hagrid casually, "he wouldn't take his cloak off."

He saw the five of them look stunned and raised his eyebrows.

"It's not that unusual, yeh get a lot o' funnt folk in the Hog's Head - that's the pub down in the village. Mighta bin a dragon dealer, mightn't he? I never saw his face, he kept his hood up."

Lily felt her legs shake, but held on to Hector's hand. Harry, on the other hand, sank down next to the bowl of peas. "What did you talk to him about, Hagrid? Did you mention Hogwarts at all?"

"Mighta come up," said Hagrid, frowning as he tried to remember. "Yeah… he asked what I did, an' I told him I was the gamekeeper here… He asked a bit about the sorta creatures I took after… so I told him… an' I said what I'd always really wanted was a dragon… an' then… I can"t remember too well, 'cause he kept buying me drinks… Let's see… yeah, then he said he had the dragon egg, an' we could play cards fer it if I wanted… but he had ter be sure I could handle it, he didn't want it ter go ter any old home… So I told him, after Fluffy, a dragon would be easy…"

"And did he- seemed interested in Fluffy?" Lily asked this time, her chest burning as she hopelessly expected a different answer than the one about to come.

"Well- yeah- how many three-headed dogs d'yeh meet, even around Hogwarts? So I told him, Fluffy's a piece o' cake if yeh know how to calm him down, jus' plat him a bit o' music an' he'll go straight off ter sleep-"

Hagrid suddenly looked horrified.

"I shouldn'ta told yeh that!" he blurted out. "Forget I said it! Hey- where yeh goin?"

All five of them didn't speak to each other until they came to a halt in the entrance hall, which seemed very cold and gloomy after the grounds. Lily was fighting off her thoughts, focusing on every single spell she knew to build a barrier, but she was about to fail.

"We've got to go to Dumbledore," said Harry. "Hagrid told that stranger how to get past Fluffy, and it was either Snape or Voldemort under that cloak - it must've been easy, once he'd got Hagrid drunk. I just hope Dumbledore believes us. Firenze might back us up if Bane doesn't stop him. Where's Dumbledore's office?"

They looked around, as if hoping to see a sign pointing them in the right direction.

"Lily, Hector, you've been there after the duel. Do you remember how to get there?" Asked Hermione.

"I don't, I was too shaken," said Hector.

"Me too, but there were stairs… must be on top."

"Not too high, I never saw him near Ravenclaw's tower."

"We'll just have to-" Harry began, but a voice suddenly rang across the hall.

"What are you doing inside?"

It was Professor McGonagall, carrying a large piece of books.

"We want to see Professor Dumbledore," said Hector, rather bravely, the others thought.

"See Professor Dumbledore?" Professor McGonagall repeated, as though this was a very fishy thing to want to do. "Why?"

Lily didn't know how much to trust the head of Gryffindor, but she hoped the woman to be open to discuss the subject.

"It's sort of secret," Harry answered, and Professor McGonagall's nostrils flared.

"Professor Dumbledore left ten minutes ago," she said coldly. "He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and flew off for London at once."

"He's gone?" said Harry frantically. "Now?"

"But this is important," Harry continued, but Lily felt her body relax. If Dumbledore had left, it only meant that it was all going according to the plans. She barely paid any more attention to Harry's argument with Professor McGonagall, until he said that it all had to do with the Philosopher's Stone. It was certain that McGonagall hadn't seen that coming, because the books she was carrying tumbled out of her arms, and she didn't bother to pick them up. "How do you know-?" she spluttered.

"Professor, I think - I know - that Sn-that someone's going to try and steal the Stone. I've got to talk to Professor Dumbledore."

She eyed him with a mixture of shock and suspicion.

"Professor Dumbledore will be back tomorrow," she said finally. "I don't know how you found out about the Stone, but rest assured, no one can possibly steal it, it's too well protected."

"But Professor-"

"Potter, I know what I'm talking about," she said shortly. She bent down and gathered up the fallen books. i suggest you all go back outside and enjoy the sunshine."

But they didn't.

"It's tonight," Harry said to them after McGonagall was out of earshot. "Snape's going through the trapdoor tonight. He's found out everything he needs, and now he's got Dumbledore out of the way. He sent that note, I bet the Ministry of Magic will get a real shock when Dumbledore turns up."

Hermione was about to say something, but they all suddenly realized that Snape was standing in front of them.

"Good afternoon," the potions master said smoothly.

They all stared at him.

"You shouldn't be inside on a day like this," he said, with an odd, twisted smile.

"We were-" Harry began, but didn't finish.

"You want to be more careful," said Snape, looking at Lily in a meaningful way. "Hanging around like this, people will think you're up to something. And Gryffindor really can't afford to lose any more points, can it?"

Lily rolled her eyes as Snape failed miserably on his attempt to make the trio believe that everything would be fine. In fact, Lily thought that he wasn't really trying. Harry, Ron and Hermione turned to go outside, and Lily pulled Hector to follow them as she looked back to scold Snape with her eyes.

"Be warned, Potter - any more nighttime wanderings and I will personally make sure you are expelled. Good day to you."

A few steps later and all five of them heard the potions master's voice once again.

"Boyd!" he barked. "We must have a conversation about your test. Come."

Lily left with Snape towards the staffroom. In there, Snape made her sit down and spoke to her about the test for about an hour, while Lily made an effort to keep in the character of a young student very worried about her grades on potions while holding back her thoughts because Quirrell was in the room.

They were finally about to leave to the dungeons under the excuse that Snape would show Lily how to properly make the forgetfulness potion, in which she had utterly failed - which obviously was a lie, but Lily had a headache from the energy required to occlumency away her thoughts - when Snape nearly stumbled on Hermione, who was clearly spying on them, but said that she was waiting for Flitwick. Snape went to get him, probably only to see the expression of despair on her face, and made Lily follow him down to the dungeons.

Snape rested on the armchair near the unlit fireplace, and pointed to the other sit, where Lily allowed her body to fall.

"That was exhausting! Especially just after the exams, I was barely hanging on."

"Have a cup of ginger tea. You are, indeed, an exceptional occlumens."

It took Lily a second or two to understand that Severus Snape, the potions master, the head of Slytherin, was complimenting her. He too noticed that unusual behaviour.

"Don't expect any more of that," he added before muffling the room.

"Professor, Hagrid told him how to get past Fluffy. You were the one to write Dumbledore the letter, right?"

"It was me. By seeing an unexpected chance of anticipation of his plans, it might be that Quirrell will make a number of critical mistakes."

"I think Harry might go through the trapdoor tonight. If Quirrell really goes for the stone, Harry might meet him in there."

"Then you and your friend will have to stop Potter from getting anywhere near that trapdoor."

"We will be waiting for Harry at the third floor," Lily ensured.


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N:** Well, this is the last chapter of this book. The Chamber of Secrets is on its way (sort of, I have six written chapters). Please, let me know what you think about the story, tell me if you want to read the rest and what you think could be improved.

**The Two-Faced Man**

Hector was easy to find. He expected Lily to be with Snape, and was waiting for her by the entrance to the dungeon. They held each other hands and, without having Hector even ask where were they going, they went to the third floor to wait for Harry. When they arrived, the corridor was empty, and there was no sign that anyone was coming. As the hours passed, they sat down by the wall, facing the door through which Quirrell would have to pass to get to Fluffy, and then through the trapdoor.

They skipped dinner to make sure that Quirrell wouldn't get to Fluffy before they could stop him. Lily hoped Snape would get Dumbledore back before the D.A.D.A teacher arrived at the third floor, but clearly that wasn't going to happen, and they stayed there, making small talk about the exams for what seemed to be hours.

"Is Quirrell really coming for the stone tonight?" Hector finally asked.

"Yes. He is probably waiting for everyone to sleep. But remember, we are here for Harry. We have to tell him that Snape has already gone to Dumbledore to take him back and catch Quirrell and Voldemort at once. We are not supposed to face Quirrell, he is dangerous."

"And Voldemort is really back?"

"We are sure about that. The centaurs in the forest have sensed it too, and Harry's scar keeps burning. Voldemort has been around Hogwarts, drinking unicorn blood in the forest, that's why I the badger bit me."

"Harry must be so scared…"

"I am scared," said Lily.

"I'm not," said Hector and Lily stared at him. "I am everything he hates. I've been studying about the war- Voldemort wanted the muggleborns out of Hogwarts, he only wanted pure bloods here. I am the very thing that threatens him, and look at me, I am eleven years old. If I threaten him that much, then there is nothing to fear."

Hector was intelligent, but Lily had never seen the bravery in him. He was usually the brain, while she was the courage, and now there he was, saying those things and looking at the door, waiting for the evil to come.

And it came.

The door to the third floor went open, but it wasn't Harry. It was, as they should expect, Quirrell.

The children stood up to face the man.

"I was expecting Potter," Quirrell simply said, without stuttering.

"So were we," Lily answered, since she had no other idea of what to say.

"Well, you should go looking for him somewhere else. I have- unfinished business in this room," Quirrell took a step forwards, and it seemed like he had grown up a few feet. Hector pulled Lily closer to him, and stepped closer to the door.

"You won't get to the Stone."

Quirrell had a sarcastic smile on his face. Lily felt her stomach twist as she realized that the stuttering, boring D.A.D.A professor had only been a facade. Of course she already knew that, but knowing something is different from witnessing it.

"Come, now- you two don't want to face me," the feeling inside Lily got worse when she heard a certain guilt, or compassion, in Quirrell's voice.

"We don't have to! Professor Snape will arrive with Dumbledore at any minute now!" Lily shouted. Revealing her plans, of course, wasn't the best idea, but it was all they had at the moment.

"Oh, Snape. He has been trying to ruin my plans ever since I've got here. Good thing everyone despises him, or people would start suspecting me," said Quirrell calmly. "He tried to scare me out of Hogwarts, can you imagine? Oh, of course you can. You were there, in the forbidden forest."

"How could you see me?" Lily dared to ask.

"I didn't see you. But I don't need to see. Not when I have my master's wisdom. I knew you had been there when you first stepped foot in my class a few days later."

"Y-you saw my mind."

"Of course. It got harder to figure what is going on in your tiny head since Snape taught you that occlumency stupidity - but I heard enough before that to know you were a threat. I tried to kill you, but every time you had that inconvenient pendant biting your wrist and you ran to Snape."

Lily, once again, was grateful for not ignoring her pendant.

"And now," Quirrell continued "I must say you should leave. There is nothing you can do against me anymore. You are barely a delay."

"_Stop wasting my time, Quirrell"_

A voice that didn't belong to neither of them sounded in the room, but there was no one else. Lily felt her badger pendant bite her wrist, and held tight to Hector. She suddenly realized their current situation - they were cornered between a dark wizard and a door behind which there was a three-headed-dog.

"M-master - they are c-children," Quirrell stuttered.

"_Do you dare disobey me?"_

"M-master, please!"

Quirrell's turban looked like it had been pushed away from his head. It was the oddest thing the children had ever seen - in fact, for one entire second, they almost forgot to be afraid.

"Master!" Quirrell begged.

"_I have had enough of your weakness, Quirrell."_

Quirrell let out a high pitched scream, and Lily and Hector had to cover their ears in panic as they still tried to figure what was going on. All Lily could think right then was where were Snape and Dumbledore, and why were they taking so long. Quirrell - or Quirrell's body, for the man which it belonged no longer seemed to have much control of himself - turned on his feet, and the children found themselves staring at a second face behind Quirrell's head.

Lily took another step back, and felt her body reach the wall. Hector was shaking on her side, but neither could stop staring at that thing.

The face was chalk-white. It barely reminded them of a human being. It looked like it had stopped midway through transforming into a snake. Red eyes inside which there were slits for pupils. He didn't have lips, or a nose, which had been replaced with two snake-like slits for nostrils.

"Voldemort," Lily heard Hector whisper, like he had to say the name to understand the figure.

"_Dare not speak my name, mudblood," _his cold voice seemed to freeze their lips.

"_Lily Black - I shall not spoil your pure blood by calling you by your muggle name. Your mother is a valuable fighter. I honor her bravery by allowing you to leave. It would be a waste of magical blood to kill you here."_

Quirrell's arm moved, encouraging Lily to walk towards the exit. The girl did not move, for she knew that thing wasn't allowing Hector to leave with her.

"Go, Lily."

"No," she answered to Hector "I won't go without Hector."

They were aware that they were no longer fighting for the Stone. Snape was nowhere to be seen, and it wouldn't change anything whether they would die then or later - because dying was everything they could do at the moment, and it wouldn't save the Stone. It wasn't worth it. All Lily could think of right then was that they had to get away from there, and she would not leave Hector as a bargain for her life.

"_Hogwarts is no place for a mudblood. The boy must die, for the sake of our kind._"

"No!"

"_You have chosen your own fate._"

Quirrell's arm raised a wand and Lily could see a sparkle of green light at its end. Then, all of a sudden, Quirrell's arm moved the wand away from the children, and the spell hit the wall. Before Lily could acknowledge anything else, Hector was pulling her arm and they had ran out of the third floor corridor.

"_We will see about this when we are done, Quirrell. Now go, you have wasted enough of my time. Leave them, there will be time for you to deal with them when I get to the Stone, so you might get your redemption,"_ it was the last thing the children heard Voldemort say before they were too far from the room.

They had to go for help.

The school was dark, and they seemed to have ran at random for about an hour.

They had gone to the Dungeons, to the library, to the astronomy tower and to the Great Hall, but there was no one to be found. To worsen things, they couldn't find a way into the Gryffindor common room, so there was an enormous chance that Harry, Ron and Hermione had already gone through the trapdoor and were halfway to Quirrell, while Lily and Hector were cluelessly searching for someone.

"Where is everyone?" Lily asked at some point.

"I don't know! Somehow, we haven't even met Mrs. Norris, or Filch, or Peeves!"

"The entire castle can't have turned into ghosts within hours!"

"Let's try the Ravenclaw common room," said Hector.

"No, let's go to Hufflepuff. It's far from here, but at least going down is quicker than climbing all the stairs to the Ravenclaw tower."

To be honest with herself, Lily knew it had been stupid not to try their own common rooms before, but she forgave herself, since they were so uneasy from the previous events. Nonetheless, they had wasted precious time running around like two scared chickens.

As Lily finished the sentence, Dumbledore and Snape materialized in front of them, as if it had been magic. _Well, it probably was magic_, Lily thought.

"Professor! Quirrell went through the trapdoor about hour ago, we tried to stop him, but he was going to kill us!" shouted Hector. Lily looked at him, surprised to learn that the boy was actually able to speak to Snape.

"We couldn't find anyone! And we can't find Harry!" Lily finished.

For the first time - and possibly last - in her life, Lily saw a flash of despair behind Dumbledore's half-moon glasses.

"We have no time to lose," the headmaster said, and hushed through the castle to the third floor.

"What took you so long?" Lily asked to Snape as they followed the headmaster.

"Flying to London," he answered shortly, and Lily heard in his voice the same uneasiness that had taken Dumbledore's eyes.

When they reached the third floor, Dumbledore stopped on his feet and turned to them.

"I believe you two shouldn't follow us from here."

"Professor, Ron is my cousin. I have to go."

"I am afraid it is very unlikely that you will survive a second encounter with Voldemort," Dumbledore said.

"I am going," she determined, and was not very sure why Dumbledore didn't insist. Maybe he thought there was no more time to disagree.

It was all very fast. The headmaster opened the door and enchanted a harp that was lying next to an enormous three headed hound, which's paw must have weighed a tonne. The hound had a bark halfway out of its gigantic mouths when he heard the harp and immediately fell asleep. Dumbledore whispered a spell and the trapdoor burst open. He jumped in, followed by Snape. Lily and Hector held hands before jumping.

The surface they landed on was soft, but Lily quickly recognised it as devil's snare.

"Oh, no!" She let out, and then concentrated on trying to relax her body.

It didn't take long, for Dumbledore had already conjured a bright light upon their heads, which made the devil's snare retreat and let them go. Again, Lily felt herself fall, and was impressed by how quickly the headmaster could cast spells, for they did not land on the floor, but on pillows he had conjured.

Lily looked around and was grateful to see that, at least in that room, there was no sign that Ron, Harry and Hermione had been in trouble.

Then the four of them followed through the only way ahead. Lily was aware that she should be afraid, but she wasn't. It was, of course, a trip under the castle to try and stop the darkest wizard there ever was, but still it was exciting. Lily looked up and saw Snape glare daggers at her. Of course she shouldn't be thinking that.

They reached a room in which there were hundreds of shiny birds flying. Shiny? Lily tightened her eyes, trying to catch a fix look at one of the things. They were not birds, they were keys.

"Oh, dear. I don't think there is a spell I can cast to bring the key any closer. Lily, would you mind climbing on one of those brooms and bringing that charming old key to us?" Dumbledore seemed to have recovered his temper. Lily looked at the broom for a moment, and then to Hector.

"You can do it. I would just be a distraction up there with you," he said "I bet you can be as great as a seeker as you are as a beater."

Lily smiled, reassured, and climbed on one of the four brooms. She located the big, silver, old key she was supposed to get. It would be easy - the key was barely flying. She took off. The keys seemed to despair and flew around the room like a shoal. Lily flew behind them, her eyes moving like crazy to keep looking at the key. It was harder than she thought, she needed to look down and dive, like Harry often did on the matches.

She went up and up, nearly touching the ceiling, and looked down at the keys. She moved her body to the extreme front of the broom and took one last look to locate the key and aim her dive. She dove, unable to push away the amazing feeling that flying brought her. Her heart raced and she nearly lost her breath as she went down like a falcon and grabbed the key.

Lily landed and brought the key to Dumbledore.

"You were great," Hector said. He too seemed to have lost most of the fear. Perhaps they felt safer because they had adults with them… Probably Ron, Hermione and Harry had been more frightened than them.

When Dumbledore opened the door, however, Lily felt dizzy. On a real scale chess board, sat Hermione, next to an unconscious Ron.

"Ron!" Lily shouted, and ran to her cousin. "Hermione, what happened?"

"We had to act as pieces on the chessboard to pass. Ron sacrificed himself as a knight," she answered and then looked up to Dumbledore. "Harry went ahead."

Only then Hermione seemed to acknowledge that Snape was with them, and froze. Lily decided that the situation was too tense to say that she had told the trio that Snape wasn't the one they were looking for. But it didn't stop Snape from smirking ironically at Hermione.

"Severus- escort the children back up, take Ron Weasley to Madam Pomfrey and wait for my return. I will go after Harry."

Dumbledore went ahead to play a chess match, taking the place of a pawn. Lily saw him take the first step and start the game before Snape casted a spell on Ron to make him levitate out of the room. She followed the potions master with a heavy heart, wishing she could stay to meet Harry.

Snape seemed to sense her will to return, because his cloak covered her shoulder as he conducted her out and back into the key chamber. They returned through the trapdoor with the aid of an enchantment and luckily the harp was still playing by itself. Fluffy was fast asleep.

"Granger, push Weasley to Madam Pomfrey, and try not to get in trouble in the way, or else you might try to blame me again," Snape said in a low voice. "Allen, go with them."

"I'll stay with Lily," said Hector.

"I want him to stay, professor."

Snape sighed and, as if he couldn't push it back anymore, he rested one hand on the top of Lily's head.

"I am relieved that you are alive," he finally said.

"Me too," Lily confessed, and she intended to continue, but right then the door opened to reveal Dumbledore, followed by Harry, who was unconscious and floating in the air, just like Ron had been before.

"I found him lying next to a pile of dust which I believe to be Quirrell's remains… and this," Dumbledore took from a pocket what seemed to be a large, blood-red stone.

"The Philosopher's Stone!" Lily let out.

"Can I see it? Just see it, I won't touch it," assured Hector.

"Well, I don't think any harm will be done," Dumbledore smiled kindly beneath his long moustache and exhibited the stone to Hector.

Lily saw again the nerd boy, interested on that ancient artifact Dumbledore had between his fingers. Hector didn't even look like he had been threatened by Lord Voldemort a few moments ago.

"I never thought I would ever see something like this in my life!"

"It is quite an achievement, my boy. Indeed, few people but me and Nicholas Flamel have seen the Philosopher's Stone."

Hector's eyes were glittering as he seemed to try and see every minor detail of the Stone.

"Now, I will take Harry to Madam Pomfrey… I don't believe he will be awake before a week. And you two, off to bed."

Lily and Hector walked together to the stairs at which they would split ways. Now that the danger was gone, Lily realized she was exhausted, and also starving.

"You were really brave," she said when they stopped at the stairs. Hector had half of his body on the first step.

"So was you. I thought we were going to die, honestly."

Lily nodded. For a moment, she had thought it too.

"Quirrell spared us," she finally answered.

"I wonder why. I mean, he allowed Voldemort into his body - there is no way he would be good."

"Maybe he liked children or something. Well- I'm about to fall asleep on the floor. Goodnight, Hector."

"Goodnight, Lily."

They gave each other a long, tight hug which comforted their hearts, and Lily watched Hector begin to climb the stairs. Then, taking a deep breath, she went down through the corridors, under the castle and into the passageway to her cosy, warm and comfortable common room.

In there, she felt a strange reassurance, a feeling she hadn't had in a while. It sort of tightened her chest, but in a good way. It was a feeling she thought she had when she played with Hector in her living room in winter and the scent of hot chocolate was caught by her nose.

She couldn't hold back a wide smile when she saw that in the middle of the room, in front of the most overstuffed armchair, there was a table on which sat a pile of sandwiches and a mug of hot chocolate. She was, indeed, starving.

It seemed that the days after the trip under the trapdoor dragged by. Ron had woken up on the next day, and had been released from the hospital wing just afterwards. He and Hermione told Lily and Hector everything they had been through, and were surprised to hear their version of the facts, especially when they said it all had been planned by Lily and Snape, and that the trio had been through unnecessary danger. The most funny part was when Ron and Hermione had to admit that Lily was right to trust Snape, and they had misjudged him.

Then, the word that Harry Potter was in the hospital wing after saving hogwarts from a mysterious threat spread, and it seemed that the Gryffindors - even Neville - forgave Harry for losing a hundred and fifty points.

On one afternoon, Lily was sitting on the armchair at Snape's office and they were having iced ginger tea in silence. Snape was in a good mood - Slytherin had won the House Cup for the seventh year in a row and the feast to celebrate it would take place on the next evening.

"Professor, something weird happened on that night on the third floor," said Lily. It had all happened so fast that she took a long time to realize a few things about the events.

"Say it."

"When Quirrell started taking too long to kill us, Voldemort revealed himself to us… like, he was a head behind Quirrell's head. It seemed that he was the one to control Quirrell's body for a moment, and he spoke to us."

Snape leaned forwards, interested.

"He said that he would spare me, if I wanted to leave, because my mother was brave - and because it would be a waste of pure blood. But, professor, I am a half blood… right?"

Snape was silent, as if he, for the first time in his life, didn't know what to say. It felt like they had gone back to their first conversation in the Leaky Cauldron.

"Professor," Lily insisted when Snape began to take to loong. "Am I a pure blood? Am I another man's daughter?" Snape still couldn't answer. "Professor, am I Sirius Black's daughter?"

"I don't know!" He bursted, and stood up. "Your mother refused to admit, but I think you are," Severus began pacing around the room like a lion trapped in a cage.

"Why?"

"You have his eyes," he said painfully.

"Is he alive?"

Snape kept pacing in agony.

"Yes. In Azkaban."

"Why?"

"Because he betrayed Lily and James Potter and told the Dark Lord where to find them. He is the one to blame if she was killed." Snape now barked like a dog, pacing faster, and Lily felt the need to shrink on her armchair.

The room seemed to grow cold and dark with the oppressive silence that built. It took a few minutes for Lily to be able to figure what to say to the still-pacing Snape.

"Is that why you can't like me?"

Snape stopped and turned to her.

"I like you. I despise Sirius Black."

"Because of Harry's mother?"

"Not only. Before that, Sirius Black was a brat, playing pranks at everyone and disturbing peace along with James Potter and the rest of the gang. They had no idea what was the meaning of the word _limit_, and he made it clear when he tried to feed me to a werewolf."

"What?" Lily couldn't fully bring herself to believe it. Why would her mother have any kind of relationship with a bully, for what Snape was saying?

"That is a long story."

"Why would my mother be with anyone like this?"

"I don't know," Snape said miserably. "I don't know."

Suddenly the door burst open. It was Hector.

"Harry is awake!" He said. Lily moved towards the door, but stopped to look at the potions master. He hadn't moved.

"Aren't you coming, professor?"

"There is nothing for me to do there, now that the brat is awake. Go on."

Lily nodded cautiously and went with Hector.

When they arrived to the hospital wing, Harry was on his bed, speaking to Ron and Hermione.

"Harry!"

"Oh! Hi, Lily," the boy smiled.

"I thought you would sleep through the summer break," she joked, and all of them laughed.

"I wish, so I wouldn't have to go with the Dursleys."

"You could come to my house for a few days," Ron offered.

"Or to mine," said Lily.

"I don't think so. Uncle Vernon will probably not allow me out of the house for the next three months," said Harry miserably. "Anyway - I heard you saw Voldemort too."

"We did. He tried to kill us, but Quirrell deflected the spell, somehow," Hector answered, and he sounded somewhat excited.

"Did he?" Harry sounded impressed. "Quirrell didn't blink when Voldemort told him to kill me. It was lucky that he couldn't touch me."

"What?"

"According to professor Dumbledore, when my mother refused to let Voldemort kill me, and shielded me from the killing curse, she used a very old sort of magic which won't allow Voldemort to touch me even to this day."

"I never read about this on any book in the library," Hermione vaguely said, not realizing how emotionally deep this matter was for Harry.

"Hey- do you think Dumbledore meant you to go after Quirrell, Harry?" Ron asked out of nowhere.

"Well," Hermione exploded, "if he did - I mean to say that's terrible - you could have been killed."

"No, it isn't," said Harry. "He's a funny man, Dumbledore. I think he sort of wanted to give me a chance. I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here, you know. I reckon he had a pretty good idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he just taught us enough to help. I don't think it was an accident he let me find out how the mirror worked. It's almost like he thought I had the right to face Voldemort if I could…"

"Yes…" Lily said cautiously, "I think Dumbledore made sure to make me trust Snape. But I don't really think it was just for the sake of your safety - I think he wanted me to learn something from him, and for him to learn something from me," she finished, remembering the conversation she just had with the head of Slytherin.

"Yeah, Dumbledore's off his rocker, all right," said Ron proudly. "Listen, you've got to be up for the end-of-year feast tomorrow. The points are all in and Slytherin won, of course - you missed the last Quidditch match, we were steamrolled by Ravenclaw without you - but the food'll be good."

At that moment, Madam Pomfrey bustled over.

"You've had nearly fifteen minutes, now OUT" she said firmly.

All four of them obeyed the woman, and Lily went with Hector to the courtyard to sit on the grass. They had little more time in Hogwarts on that year, and although they missed their respective mothers they would also miss the castle when they got back. It would also be a very different summer - Violet had written to Lily to tell her that they would indeed leave Edinburgh and move to the countryside, to a proper witch house - they wouldn't be together like always. Of course they would visit each other via flu network, but it was different from just crossing to each other's windows.

"What were you talking about to professor Snape before I arrived?"

"Do you remember when I first talked to Snape at the Leaky Cauldron and he asked me if I was the daughter of Sirius Black?"

"Yes."

"We think it is true," Lily simply said, trying to make it easier for herself to digest.

"Well- I think it too."

Lily felt only a little surprise. It wasn't exactly a shock that Hector had spent some time thinking about that, but was surprising that the boy hadn't brought up the subject before that.

"Obviously, you look like your mother. Like, you could be her clone," he started, "only you have gray eyes. But your mother has green eyes, and your father had brown eyes. According to a muggle biology book I read once, there is little chance that you would end up with gray eyes."

"But there is a chance, right?"

"There is a twelve percent chance. But the chances that not only you would get your eyes, but they would also be just like someone else's eyes - and this someone would happen to have been in a relationship with your mother just before she left to the muggle world - well, I guess the chances are null. It is more likely that your mother was just not ready to tell you that you are someone else's daughter."

"That makes sense," said Lily, sounding very miserable now, "according to professor Snape, Sirius Black was the one to betray Harry's parents. He is in Azkaban now."

"Oh."

"I will appreciate if you don't tell Harry about it."

"I think there might be an explanation for that. I don't think your mother would be with someone who would betray their friends."

"What if that was why she left?"

"But she still talked to us about him as 'her friend', and not as 'the man who betrayed my friends', right? I think she believes in his innocence," Hector concluded, and Lily didn't think she could find a way to disagree.

"Innocent or not, I would still be thankful if you didn't mention it to Harry, or Ron or Hermione. I don't want them to hate me because of that."

Hector hesitated for a moment, but ultimately agreed not to speak of the subject to anyone else.

The rest of the day came and went by with no further events. Lily and Hector met Susan by the lake and stayed there, trying to catch a sight of the giant squid.

On the next evening, Gabriel Truman reunited all the Hufflepuffs for a speech in the common room.

"Okay. I gathered you all here because, once again, Slytherin won the house cup. I understand that this might be upsetting for most of us, but I don't want anyone picking fights with the Slytherins, even though they will be like - well, like they have been every year."

"But last year they were throwing dungbombs on the first year muggleborns!" Alice Lewis, from fifth year, protested.

"I know, Alice! But you locked the boy in a room with Peeves for an hour!" Lily exchanged a look with Susan and they giggled.

"You should have seen that Slytherin when he managed to open the door," Cedrig whispered from behind them.

"I would do the same if someone was throwing dungbombs on the first year muggleborns," Melissa Knight said from the other corner of the room.

"Alright, alright!" Said Gabriel Truman. "Don't pick fights _unless _the Slytherins are being coward pranksters. And let's keep doing our best to win the house cup next year!"

After that failed speech, the Hufflepuffs went through the passageway one by one and then to the great hall.

Lily made what she could to walk with dignity, but she nearly looked away when she say the ceiling and walls all decorated with Slytherin banners. The professors were already there, except for Dumbledore, and Lily saw that Snape still had that smirk on his face. She made sure that he saw her roll her eyes.

The other houses entered along with the Hufflepuffs, and they had just sat down when the doors opened again, for Harry Potter. The boy sliped into a seat between Ron and Hermione, seemingly to try and ignore the fact that people were standing up to look at him. Everybody sat back down when Dumbledore arrived moments later.

"Another year gone!" Dumbledore said cheerfully. "And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were… you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts…

"Now, as I understand it, the house cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Gryffindor, with three hundred and twelve points; in third with Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty-two; Ravenclaw has four hundred and Slyterin, four hundred and seventy two.

A storm of cheering and stamping broke out from the Slytherin table. Lily tried to ignore Draco Malfoy banging his goblet on the table, but it was too disgusting.

"Yes, yes, well done, Slytherin," said Dumbledore. "However, recent events must be taken into account."

The room went very still. The Slytherins' smiles faded.

"Ahem," said Dumbledore. "I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see, Yes…

"First - to Miss Lily Boyd, for her courage to follow her house ideals to the last consequences and stand up for her friends, I award Hufflepuff house sixty points." The Hufflepuff table cheered. They were now in third place! Susan and Cedric were clapping the loudest in the table, and each member of the house quidditch team made sure to mess Lily's hair.

"Second - to Mr. Hector Allen, for his courage when faced with imminent danger, I award Ravenclaw house sixty points." Ravenclaw cheered just as loudly as Hufflepuff. Lily saw Hector get a little bewildered, and then proud.

"Third - to Mr. Ronald Weasley, for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

The Gryffindor table broke the silence, cheering loudly. Lily could hear her cousin Percy telling the other prefets "My brother, you know! My youngest brother! Got past McGonagall's giant chess set!"

At last there was silence again.

"Fourth - to Miss Hermione Granger… for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

Hermione seemed to disappear, and Lily had to stretch her neck to see that the girl had buried her face in her arms.

"Fifth - to Mr. Harry Potter, for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house sixty points.

The Gryffindors were cheering so much that Lily swore she could see the walls shaking. They were now tied for the house cup with Slytherin. Dumbledore raised his hand and the room gradually fell silent.

"There are all kinds of courage," said Dumbledore, smiling. "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to your enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom."

Someone standing outside the Great Hall might well have thought some sort of explosion had taken place, so loud was the noise that erupted from the Gryffindor table. Lily was up on her feet, clapping and cheering along with all the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. It had put Hufflepuff back on fourth place and Ravenclaw on third, but not only did Harry, Ron and Hermione deserve those points, but it also took the house cup from Slytherin.

"Which means," Dumbledore called over the storm of applause, "we need a little change of decoration."

He clapped his hands. In an instant, the green hangings became scarlet and the silver became gold; the huge Slytherin serpent vanished and a towering Gryffindor lion took its place. Lily saw Snape's smirk vanish and twist into an awful forced smile as he shook hands with McGonagall.

The last week before the train departure was strange. They had their exam results coming - Lily passed with surprisingly good marks, especially on potions, and Hector was second best student in the first year, just beneath Hermione.

Then, all of a sudden, their wardrobes were empty, their trunks were packed, there were no more classes to attend to. Notes were handed out to all students, warning them not to use magic over the holidays (it said nothing about flying or brewing, Lily noticed); Hagrid was there boarding them down to the fleet of boats that sailed across the lake; they were boarding the Hogwarts Express. As they speeded through muggle towns, they had to pull off their robes and put on muggle clothing. Lily was with Hector and Susan, laughing and eating Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans as they told Susan everything about what had happened through the year. The girl didn't seem to mind too much that they left her out of the events - she wouldn't have handled it well - but asked them not to do it again. Before they knew it, the train had stopped at King's Cross station.

It took quite a while for everyone to get off the platform, because there was an old guard was up by the ticket barrier, letting them go through the gate in twos and threes so they didn't attract attention from the muggles on the other side.

"Can you see them?" Hector asked once they went through the wall.

"Ahm…" Lily looked around, trying to find a set of hair matching hers. "There!"

Violet and Rachel were talking next to another platform and waved to them as soon as they saw the children.

Lily and Hector pushed their luggage towards their mothers and were welcomed with tight hugs and kisses to their cheeks. They learned that they had to go to Lily's old apartment to finish packing, and then to the new house to organize everything. Before going, however, Violet introduced Rachel to the Weasleys, and Arthur was extremely excited to meet a muggle, and asked when she and Hector would visit them for tea.

Even before they left the station, Rachel assured that she and Hector would be spending the end of the holidays with Lily and Violet.

This would be a very exciting summer.


End file.
